To Be A Monster
by Jeetestu
Summary: Millennium has been defeated but at what cost? Hellsing is in ruins along with the rest of London. Alucard is gone and Iscariot has gone underground. Now, Seras Victoria must learn to survive without her master in a changing world. A world that has new vampire threats, new friends and enemies and where she may be Hellsing's next target.
1. Change

Chapter 1 - Change

The Anglo-American Bioterrorism Incident. As if those few simple words could convey the pain and suffering inflicted on Britain in a single day. It had been mere weeks since almost four million lives had been snuffed out for the sake of a madman's war and yet life moved on. The British government had fed a story full of half-baked lies and inaccuracies to the public; a pitiful attempt to quell the outpour of panic and anger that was sure to come. But there never was any anger or panic. Not a single riot broke out. So stunned were the survivors, so desperate for an answer, that they believed the lies they were told, because they wanted to.

Seras almost envied the ignorance of the public. To know that vampires not only exist, but that they could kill a man with the flick of the wrist, dodge bullets and explosions, and even control the dead. But then, she had nothing to fear. After all she was one of them. But she found no solace in that knowledge because if she wasn't the victim: an innocent girl hunted by a monster; then what if she was the monster? After all, she was a creature of darkness. It was in her nature.

_"Do not think such terrible thoughts, ma chére."_

Seras came to a stop as the comforting voice filled her mind.

"I can't help it Pip. Have you ever met a vampire who wasn't a sadistic monster?" She thought of Zorin, the vampire priest and even Alucard. They had all taken a sweet joy in killing. She wasn't sure she wanted to be like her master in that regard.

Seras spoke out loud even though she didn't need to. This hallway near the edge of the Hellsing mansion was empty except for her, still in a state of disrepair. Broken windows, shell casings and other debris littered the ground, barely illuminated by the glow of the moon. Seras resumed walking, eager to leave behind the grim reminders of lives lost.

_"You won't be like them Seras, you are a créature de rêve who can choose who she wants to be."_

At this Seras couldn't hold back a smile. Pip's words renewed her faith in herself. She quickened her pace down the hallway. After all, it wouldn't do to keep Sir Integra Hellsing waiting…

Integra's office was in pristine condition, in contrast to the rest of the mansion. New furniture had been brought in after the siege and the room had been refurbished to make it look brand new. Seras' master's master and leader of the Hellsing Organization sat in her office chair staring unwaveringly at her, not having said a word since Seras entered. Seras was a creature of immense power, with Alucard gone, quite possibly the most powerful vampire in existence. Her left arm formed of pure darkness, eyes of blood that seemed like windows into a void, and teeth that could rip through flesh and bone with ease. But under the scrutinizing glare of Integra, Seras felt meek as a mouse.

"Um, sir?" Seras said tentatively. "Sir Hellsing?"

Integra remained silent, choosing to hide her thoughts behind that cold, calculating stare. Hellsing's leader had proven herself to be both ruthless and capable. She'd faced down hordes of vampires without any fear and singlehandedly led the Hellsing Organization from the age of twelve. Over the course of the Nazi attack, Integra had faced her own trials when her closest retainer and friend, Walter, had defected to the enemy. Yet if these tribulations had taken their toll, then Integra hid it well. If anything, she looked even more intimidating to Seras, now that Integra wore an eye patch where she'd been shot.

_"This can't be good Seras. I fear Integra's about to be the bearer of bad news."_

Before Seras could respond to her familiar, Integra finally spoke.

"Why did you walk here when I summoned you? You could have easily entered my study in the blink of an eye if you wished, flown in on wings of darkness or travelled as a mist."

The question caught Seras by surprise. Integra didn't engage in meaningless pleasantries. This was some sort of test; there was a purpose to this line of questioning. She thought for a moment. Why had she chosen to walk the length of the mansion, from her room in the sub-basement, through the many corridors to Integra's office?

"I suppose…" Seras said, still gathering her thoughts. "I suppose I still prefer to walk, well, like a human I guess. It's just habit." Seras shrugged, hoping her answer was enough.

Integra stood up and walked to her window. London could be seen in the distance; with her enhanced vision, Seras could see that even this late at night the construction and repairs to the city had not ceased. The city had been reduced to rubble after the attack, but in mere weeks it was already beginning to resemble its former self. A testament to human tenacity.

"After the tragedy at London, Her Majesty has seen fit to grant the Hellsing organization a great deal more resources." Integra continued to look out her window, gazing at the ruins of London. "Hellsing is needed now more than ever to protect Britain, to make sure that something like this never happens again. Already our ranks are swelling. Elite soldiers from all branches of the military are being transferred to Hellsing; Britain's best and brightest will be joining us to face the vampire threat. Never before have we had such a strong military presence."

"I understand, sir." Seras relaxed; Pip had been wrong, this wasn't bad news after all.

Integra did not look pleased however. She sighed and turned to face Seras.

"No Seras, you don't understand. No one in Britain has passed through these past weeks without losing someone. Now the men and women joining Hellsing will be told the truth. The horrible truth, that monsters do exist and they must be defeated. Seras, you need to understand that all those people will be united by one thing. Their absolute hate for vampires."

Seras tensed up as cold, clear understanding struck her.

"Hellsing has no place for vampires in its ranks."

Integra only continued to look at Seras, a flicker of sadness on her face to confirm Seras' fears.

"You're going to seal me away." Seras turned down to hide the tears. "You're going to lock me up and lose the key like your father did with Alucard."

Seras couldn't feel betrayed. She knew it was what had to be done, but she hated it anyway. The new soldiers of Hellsing wouldn't trust a vampire. She was a monster after all. One of the very creatures they would be hunting. She remembered her master slaughtering an ignorant police unit in Brazil, his grin as he ripped them apart. Her own satisfaction as she had killed ghouls while fighting for Hellsing. The thrill of ripping apart their flesh and letting their blood cover the walls. How long would it be before she felt that same thrill as she killed humans? Maybe this was the only way. Maybe this is what she deserved.

But suddenly the room became filled with the booming voice of Pip Bernadotte.

_"You can't seriously plan to do this Integra! My God, after all that Seras has done for you. She would die for Hellsing and now you want to toss her aside like she's worthless. C'est des conneries!"_

Integra's face remained calm as Pip finished his rant. Seras hadn't moved, still trying to regain her composure and overcome a surge of emotion.

"I am fully aware of what Seras has done for Hellsing and I have no intention of allowing her to be sealed away, Mister Bernadotte." Seras looked up at Integra, her blood red eyes still covered in tears. "It is for this reason that Seras Victoria will be placed among the new recruits, to be trained and taught…" Integra paused to let the words sink in, "as if she were still human."

Integra walked right up to Seras, her voice growing softer. "Seras, I have never needed to enact restrictions on your power until now, but if you are to appear human, then it is required. You will still be a creature of the undead, stronger than any man, able to dodge bullets and withstand grievous injury. But your true power will be locked away. You will be as you were before you drank from Mister Bernadotte."

Seras realized the implications of this, but it was Pip who voiced her concerns.

_"So it's me who'll be sealed away then…"_

Integra nodded and held out her hands for Seras. Seras hesitated. Walter had died in the attack, Alucard had disappeared. Pip was the only friend she had left. She didn't want to lose him. But then the chance to avoid being sealed away and to be human again, if only as a disguise, was tempting. Seras felt a longing for her lost humanity that she'd thought lost. But Pip…

_"Go ahead ma chére, this can't be avoided."_

Seras closed her eyes, holding back more tears as she placed her hands on Integra's; one the hand of a normal girl, the other a living shadow. Integra chanted strange, alien words and Seras could feel the restrictions being placed on her.

When she drank from Pip it was as if a whole new realm of possibilities had been opened. All of her senses had been enhanced beyond even that of a normal vampire. Her strength and reflexes had been enhanced and world itself had seemed different to her. Now as she felt her powers being sealed away, it felt like she was dying. Her mind grew weaker, her senses darkened, she felt slow and sluggish. Seras still possessed inhuman powers, but they were just a shadow of what she had once been capable of. The worst was as she felt Pip fade away. His final words echoing in her mind before he was finally shut out.

_"Adieu ma chére. Ma Seras."_

Then he was gone.

As Seras opened her eyes she could see there were now two normal human hands on Integra's and while she didn't see it for herself, Seras knew her eyes no longer reflected a cold empty void, but instead had been replaced by her old, blue eyes. Seras once again resembled a normal, human police girl.

"It's done." Integra said as if Seras couldn't already tell. "Your powers have been locked away and only with my permission as your master's master can they be unlocked again."

"I understand, sir." Seras remarked sadly. She already missed Pip.

"You'll need to be careful," continued Integra. "Your true nature can never be made clear to the other soldiers. Contact with direct sunlight will weaken you. You cannot sleep in a coffin anymore so I will find a way to get you a supply of medical blood. Remember you are a soldier of Hellsing, and the lives of your fellow soldiers will rest in your hands. Stop the vampire threat and protect all of Britain for both God and her Majesty!"

Seras Victoria stood at attention. "Yes, sir!"

"One last thing," said Integra, "The soldiers will be divided into squads, and while I've already selected the soldiers you'll be with, the squad still needs a name. Any ideas?"

Seras only had to think for a moment before she came up with an answer.

"The Wild Geese"

Integra smiled and returned to her seat. "Very well then. Seras Victoria, starting tomorrow you and your new squad, the Wild Geese, will begin your orientation and training to become full members of the Hellsing Organization."

* * *

AN: Hello reader! I decided to write this story after seeing the 30 year gap in Hellsing Ultimate. Seras is my favorite character and I felt like she should have an adventure of her own during that time period. The main focus is Seras with Integra as a side character and Heinkel showing up _much_ later. It was originally supposed to be no more than a few chapters, but as of now I've written almost 50,000 words and I'm probably only two thirds done.

As a heads-up, since most characters are gone or dead by the end of Hellsing Ultimate, I've made a lot of OCs for the purpose of the story and to explore the different sides of Seras. It also gives me a lot more freedom with the story since I still wanted it to fit in the continuity of Hellsing Ultimate.

This is my first story so I'd love to hear any feedback or constructive criticisms, whether it be on my story, portrayal of characters, writing style etc.

As a final heads-up, things are going to be getting pretty dark for Seras so if you're looking for a humorous story you should look somewhere else.


	2. Labyrinth

Chapter 2 – Hunted

Drip. Drop. Drip. Drop.

Tristan moved slowly down the tunnel. His rifle rose searching every edge of the dark sewer tunnel. He was knee-deep in…well, something he didn't want to think about was soaking up his Hellsing uniform.

"I'm moving on target. Is everyone in position?" he muttered into his jacket, a hidden microphone passing his voice on to the rest of the squad. He waited in complete silence, as the continuous drip, drop echoed in the tunnel… Still no response… Tristan reached down to inspect his COM unit. Everything seemed to be working fine, but there was no response from the three other members of his squad.

It was possible that the labyrinth of corridors and tunnels, miles long, were interfering with his signal, the rest of the squad should be in position by now, and he just had to hope everything was going to plan. Even so, words of doubt crept into Tristan's mind.

_What if they're all dead? What if I'm about to die and I don't even know it?_

Tristan banished the thought of panic. He had to assume everything was going to plan and act as such. There should only be one vampire down here and it wouldn't be able to leave without getting through him. He took a deep breath, checked his weapon again, and continued down the tunnel.

After what felt like an eternity Tristan finally found what he was looking for. Perched on the side of a tunnel was a coffin made of rotten wood; it looked as if it was close to breaking apart and seemed completely unthreatening. But Tristan knew not to let his guard down. It was almost pitch black down in the sewer, his rifle's light barely illuminating the walls, but outside, on the surface, the sun was shining brightly. If he was lucky, he could catch the vampire sleeping, if not, well...

He resisted the temptation to just shoot the coffin from where he was. He had to be sure the vampire was inside; otherwise the gunfire would cost him not only the element of surprise, but quite possibly his life.

Tristan moved slowly and deliberately, trying to make as little sound as possible. The sludge was all over the ground, silencing his footsteps. His heart was racing as he neared the solitary coffin. Still no movement. The vampire must still be sleeping. Tristan was coming within arm's reach now, every fiber of his body urged him to turn and run but he kept moving forward.

Tristan was no coward. His bravery and accomplishments had been how he joined the SAS and subsequently why Hellsing had recruited him. But being in this dark tunnel, alone with a monster that could rip him to shreds tested every ounce of his will. He took a deep breath and remembered why he was here. Remembered Amanda.

With an image of his little sister in mind, Tristan found the courage he needed. He placed one hand on the coffin, the other aiming his rifle, and in one smooth motion ripped the coffin open–

It was empty.

"What!?" gasped Tristan in both surprise and panic. Could the vampire have slipped past him and intercepted the rest of his team? Or was the vampire out wandering the sewers? Maybe the intel was wrong and there wasn't a vampire at all?

As all these possibilities were playing through Tristan's mind he became aware of a sound further down the tunnel. It was the slushing sounds of someone wading through the sludge, and it was coming closer. Tristan quickly aimed his rifle down the tunnel, eyes watching to see what was coming his way.

_"Ya mind not shining that light in my eye?"_ said an old, dry voice in French.

Out of the darkness came, not a monster, but an old man wearing overalls, with his arm over his eyes to shield himself from the light. A long white beard stretched down his face, his arms and knees seemed frail and he walked with a slight limp. He had the uniform of one of the sewer workers.

Tristan lowered his rifle slightly and pointed it at the man's feet. The old man didn't seem like a threat, but it wouldn't hurt to be too careful.

_"What are you doing here?"_ Tristan snapped at the man in perfect French. He realized he was letting his nervousness show and calmed his voice. _"The sewers are supposed to be clear of civilians."_

_"Ya, I got the memo."_ The man came closer into the light; he looked ancient. _"Floodin' right? Well, I've been working the sewers for fifty years! Never missed a day in my life, and I'll be damned if some flood is gonna stop me now."_

Tristan relaxed, this was just some stubborn old man. Hellsing would have to work harder on its cover stories next time.

_"Last I checked, people didn't shoot at floods." _The man eyed Tristan's rifle suspiciously. _"What are you doin' down here, boy?"_

Now Tristan was on the defensive. While his mission was sanctioned by both Hellsing and the local government, it wouldn't be good if the public heard that there were armed soldiers in a sewer that was supposed to be flooded.

_"You're going to have to leave sir." _Tristan turned and gestured back where he'd come from with his rifle-light, hopefully nobody would believe some weird old man. _"I'm sure you know the way out."_

That's when he realized it. The way he came was the only exit or entrance into this part of the sewer, his light was the only light in this tunnel. How had the old man even gotten in here? How could he navigate the miles of tunnel without something to light his way? A sense of dread came over Tristan as he turned back to look at the old man, the old man who was now running faster than any human towards Tristan.

He had less than a second to pull the trigger before the collision. There was a brief flash of gunfire and Tristan could feel himself flying through the air before he came to an abrupt stop against a stone wall. He felt something break and he couldn't see anything, the sludge on the ground soaking into his uniform.

At first Tristan thought something was covering his eyes, but then he realized his rifle's flashlight must have broken in the collision, that's when he it occurred to him that he didn't have his rifle anymore. He reached for his sidearm and found that he'd lost that in the collision as well. He was completely unarmed, in the darkness, with a vampire.

His hands were shaking as he fumbled for his flashlight. He held it out, ready to turn it on but then he hesitated. If he turned on the flashlight then the vampire would be able to see him. He shook his head as he remembered his training.

_Vampires can see in the darkness as if it were day. If anything, their vision will only be impaired when they are blinded by the natural light of the sun._

But then that brought another question to his mind.

_If he can see me, why aren't I dead yet?_

No longer hesitating, Tristan turned on his flashlight and pulled himself up. He winced from the pain. He must have broken a rib. He shined his flashlight around, taking in his surroundings. He'd been pushed at least ten feet through the air and his weapons must have fallen into the sludge. He'd have to search through the filth in order to find them. Movement at the edge of the light caught his eye and Tristan's heart jumped. There, crouched on the ground where Tristan had been standing, was the vampire.

The creature that crouched in his light was like something out of a nightmare. The sludge that seeped throughout the sewers was covering the creature, giving its skin the appearance of mud. Its hands looked more like claws, with sharp nails extending inches out. The creature's teeth, resembling a shark's, were barred out in disgust. It was as if long ago the old man had been taken away and turned into some nightmarish parody of humanity. A grim feeling passed over Tristan as he realized that was exactly what had happened.

"Blessed bullets!" hissed the creature as it examined a wound to its shoulder. The bullets still wouldn't kill vampires without a hit to the head or heart, but the specialized ammo could slow them down. Then it noticed the light and turned to face Tristan. Its eyes were no longer that of any human. They were blood red, conveying only hate and pain as they stared into Tristan's own. Tristan didn't have to think of what to do next. He was unarmed and injured with a bloodthirsty monster about to attack him. There was only one thing to do.

He ran.

A howl was the only indication that the vampire was chasing him. It was injured, and had been woken up in the middle of the day, but that still didn't mean it couldn't catch up to him. Tristan's stumbled down the tunnel, one hand on his chest in excruciating pain, the other aiming the flashlight towards a fork in the tunnel.

_Left_ thought Tristan turning towards that direction. He could hear the vampire behind him but he didn't dare look back. Any mistake now; to trip, fall or make a wrong turn would mean certain death. He continued through the sewers, desperately trying to remember each and every turn he'd made in the maze of corridors, the pain in his chest growing worse each passing second.

"Tristan! Boss? Can you read me?"

Tristan felt a rush of relief at Brock's voice, a feeling that was quickly stopped as he heard another howl from the vampire. Closer this time. He rounded the corner and saw that he had reached the final exit from the sewers. The open plain that the exit led to beckoned to him like some sort of paradise. In the distance he could see Brock running across the open plains. Tristan grimaced as he realized he'd run to the wrong exit. It would take his team minutes to get to him. He would be dead in seconds.

There was still one card Tristan had to play, Brock had set up explosives on the roof of the tunnel, in case they needed to trap the vampire inside.

"Brock, detonate the explosives!" Tristan gasped into his mic, hoping it was still functioning.

"But Sir, you're still insi-"

"Do it!" Tristan snapped. He pushed himself harder. If he was lucky, he'd manage to pass the explosive before the explosion, killing the creature and hopefully sparing him. It was a long shot, but there was no way he could reach the exit in time.

The vampire sounded like it was right behind him, he saw it in his mind's eye, reaching out to pull him to his death. Tristan heard the explosives begin to pulse, a final warning before the inevitable.

Suddenly the air filled with fire, and for the second time Tristan could feel himself being catapulted through the air. He didn't remember landing, just opening his eyes moments later lying on the ground.

The air was filled with smoke and dust, making it difficult to breathe. Tristan lay there for what felt like minutes but must have been seconds, trying to assess the damage. His entire body was in pain, his chest still hurt, but now so did his head. His vision had gone blurry and one eye was covered in blood. He struggled to stand as pain lanced up his right leg. He looked behind him and was shocked to see the entire roof of the tunnel had caved in mere feet behind him. Slowly, he managed to limp closer to the exit, towards the open plains full of light. Tristan knew he shouldn't be moving with his injuries, but he didn't want to spend another moment in this god-forsaken sewer. The exit was only about a dozen yards away, but each step sent pain up his leg and he had to limp slowly against the wall.

_Just get to the light_.

That's when he noticed the scraping sound behind him.

_Goddamnit! It can't still be…_

Tristan's fears were confirmed as he looked back and saw the vampire, minus an arm, had forced its way out from the rubble. Valerie and Brock were still too far away to help him, and the vampire was still able to run. Tristan was now mere feet away from the light and getting out of these dark sewers. It was a long shot but it was the only option he had left.

He tripped and fell.

In desperation Tristan reached out for the light, just outside of his reach. His leg had finally given out. He rolled onto his back to watch death itself descend on him. He felt the vampire's fetid breath on his face, its eyes mercilessly staring at Tristan as it prepared for the kill. Tristan could do nothing to stop the vampire; he had no more energy left; his body had failed him and now he was about to die. He thought of Amanda as the vampire leaned down to feast on his blood.

All he saw was red.


	3. Hell of a Shot

Chapter 3 – Hell of a shot

"Move out of the way you brute!" Valerie barked at Brock.

Brock sometimes forgot about his own size. The hulking man was seven feet and 300 pounds of pure muscle, completely blocking the entrance to the tunnel. Still, his size didn't intimidate Valerie at all who darted past him towards Tristan's limp form.

"No need to be so harsh, doc." said the behemoth. "Boss looks fine to me."

"_Please_ move out of the way you brute," Valerie amended as she knelt to inspect Tristan's injuries. "And I'll be the judge of that."

Brock had a habit of being too informal for a soldier; a habit which always seemed to piss off Valerie. Then again, it never took much to piss her off. When she first joined Hellsing six months ago with all the other recruits, she was singled out by the other men because, as one soldier had put it, she was "sexy as hell." That unfortunate soldier went on to describe in vivid detail all the things he would do if Valerie would be alone with him, until he learned with a broken nose that Valerie had a temper to match her red hair. "Ironic," Valerie had thought, "that the first injury of the new Hellsing military had been from one of their medics."

"God he's covered in blood, how can you say he's fine?" but as she examined Tristan, still unconscious, she realized that his wounds weren't life threatening. "This isn't his blood." she stated matter-of-factly.

"Nah doc, it belongs to our friend over there." Brock gestured with his weapon, a massive machine gun weighing 10 kilos towards another figure lying on the ground.

Valerie gasped; there was the vampire they'd been hunting, a ragged stump where its arm had been and blood pouring out of its neck where its head had been blown off. Valerie had been a field medic for years and had seen plenty of grievous injuries, but the vampire's body unsettled her.

"How did this happen?" She looked up at Brock, the man wasn't squeamish when it came to killing vampires, but she found it hard to believe the gentle giant would rip off one's head.

The man could tell what she was thinking and shook his head. "As much as I would've loved to shoot that bloodsucker in the face, can't say it was me." He laughed, a great bellow echoing through the tunnel. "You should've seen it, doc, that bastard was right over Tristan, ready to sink it's teeth into him, then boom!" Brock made an explosion gesture with his hands. "Bastard's head came clean off. Our number four took him down before he knew what hit him."

"Seras…" Valerie looked far into the distance, towards a cluster of trees on top of a hill. Somewhere up there, hidden in the foliage was the fourth member of the Wild Geese.

"Hell of a shot, I'll tell you that." Brock began speaking into his mic. "Hey Seras! Why don't you come down and take a look at the bloodsucker. It's a damn work of art you made down here."

"Sorry Brock, you know I don't like the sight of blood, plus the view of Paris is great up here," replied Seras over the radio. "How's Tristan?"

Brock looked at Valerie who responded, "He's pretty beat up but he'll live. Unconscious too; we'd better get him to a hospital."

"Got it, I'll radio for evac," chimed Seras.

"I'll never get that girl." said Brock, speaking only to Valerie now, "Here she is fighting werewolves and vampires, and the girl gets nervous at the sight of blood." Brock laughed again, "And if what I heard is true, she was a police officer before signing up with Hellsing!"

"A police officer?" Valerie's green eyes widened in disbelief.

Brock grinned. He always enjoyed having Valerie's attention, especially if it was when she wasn't yelling at him.

"Ya, a goddamn police officer. Here we are, former special ops and army, and then there's a police officer. Not that I'm complaining." He looked at the dead vampire again. "Hell of a shot." he repeated.

Valerie's eyes narrowed in thought. Seras was just supposed to be recon, keep an eye on all the entrances and exits to the sewer. She must have had only had a few seconds to line up a shot from almost a mile away with a gun that had a maximum effective range of 800 meters. Valerie looked back at the vampire's body. A perfect headshot, in mere seconds, with a sub-par gun from a former police officer? It was, as Brock put it, a hell of a shot.


	4. Hunger

Chapter 4 - Hunger

_Blood._

It was all Seras could think about. That warm, sweet, sticky liquid…

Seras couldn't help but smile. Her team thought the sight of blood made her queasy. If only they knew how much it could set her nerves on fire.

She sighed, trying to exert control over herself. How long had it been since she'd last fed? Weeks? Months? Far too long, that was for sure. Since she couldn't sleep in her coffin Seras relied on blood to keep up her energy. She'd felt sluggish, then gotten hungry and the hunger had grown and grown over the past few days until she couldn't think of anything else.

It had been a daytime op as well. She hated those. The sun made her even weaker and she was glad she hadn't had to cross those sunlit plains. But even with all those forces stacked against her, she'd managed to make a shot no human could and saved Tristan. She felt proud of what she'd accomplished on that mission.

But that pride had turned to shame. If Seras had her full vampiric powers, then she could've flown into the sewers, killed the target and been out in a matter of minutes, daytime or not. But instead she was this pathetic shadow of her former-self. Her master would be disappointed in her. Not for the first time she found herself cursing the restrictions placed on her by Integra.

But it was all necessary. Even without her restrictions she couldn't be in many places at once like the squads of Hellsing, she couldn't gather intel on every possible vampire threat like Hellsing's operators could, and she couldn't keep vampires a secret from the world the way Hellsing's media control unit did. Revealing her vampiric nature would do more harm than good.

She moved to the side of her bunk. Carefully inspecting the teammates she shared her room with. Valerie lay silently on her side, her breath slow and calm. Brock, barely able to fit in his bunk, was snoring like a bear. Satisfied, Seras quietly stood up, slipped into her uniform and edged towards the door. She couldn't wait any longer.

_Blood. Sweet, sticky blood._

Seras carefully slipped out of the barracks and began navigating the Hellsing basecamp. There were no regulations against wandering the base at night, but she didn't want to raise any questions. The light of the moon was hidden by clouds, not that it bothered Seras at all; she relished the darkness and quickly made her way to the infirmary, a small building near the center of the base.

The infirmary was equipped to deal with dozens of injured soldiers at a time. Prudent, given that there were almost two hundred soldiers in Hellsing, constantly being sent on dangerous missions. As Seras silently opened the door, she could see that there were just five injured soldiers, all of them sleeping. Seras took a moment to feel sorry for one of them. Alex's mission had gone badly and his arm had been ripped off. He'd live, but he wouldn't be able to fight again. Seras winced as she remembered when her arm had been sliced off by Zorin during the attack on Hellsing Mansion.

Her heart began to race as she reached the supply room. Some of the best medical equipment in the world was stored here, but more importantly this is where they kept the blood.

_The delicious, savory, juicy blood._

Seras went to the ledger on the wall and began changing the records.

_Nobody will miss some blood packets if they were never here._

Seras recorded that there were 4 less blood packets, then reconsidered and made it 7, then reconsidered again and made it 10. She didn't know when she'd get another opportunity. With that complete, she went to claim her prize.

She grabbed a bag and began stuffing the blood packets inside. As much as she desperately needed to feed, every moment she stayed increased the chances of discovery. As Seras began moving towards the exit one of the soldiers stirred.

"Seras?" whispered a weak voice.

She froze, a sliver of panic working its way into her, but she forced herself to remain calm as she turned around.

"Hey, Tristan." She smiled meekly.

Bandages covered Tristan's head and chest. He looked sleepy and was clearly under the influence of morphine.

"What are you…What are you doin' here?" His eyes were drooping; it was taking a serious effort just to stay awake.

"I was just checking on you," Seras lied, hoping that this conversation wouldn't wake up any of the other soldiers. "Go back to sleep."

"Alright." Tristan began to relax but something stopped him and he pulled himself up. "I heard… about what happened…Thanks for…thanks for saving me, Seras…"

"No problem." Seras gently leaned Tristan back into bed. "Now get some sleep."

Tristan finally relaxed. Before fading into unconsciousness he muttered one last thing.

"You…remind me of her…of…Amanda…"

Seras didn't know how to react. Tristan never talked about his dead younger sister. Amanda had been killed during the Nazi attack. The Anglo-American Bioterrorism Incident. It seemed like everyone at Hellsing had lost someone that day.

_I wonder what you would think if you knew what I was…_

Dismissing the thought, Seras took her prized blood packets and slipped out into the night.

Rather than head back to the barracks, Seras left the base entirely. It was a simple matter to slip past the guards. They were watching out for people trying to enter the base, not trying to leave, and they were, after all, only human.

Seras kept walking until she came to a stop on a solitary hill on the outskirts of the base, far from prying eyes. Convinced that she was safe, Seras sat down and began rummaging through her bag. She began trembling in anticipation as she pulled out the first of the blood packets. She quickly tore into it greedily, drinking the red liquid without spilling a drop.

The blood felt artificial, no doubt because of how medical blood was treated. It was nothing compared to the warm, fresh blood of the living but right now, to Seras it seemed to be the sweetest nectar she'd ever tasted. Too soon she found that she'd finished the entire blood bag, and she was still hungry.

_I really should try and ration these. _

But the hunger was still there. A dozen weeks of starvation wouldn't fade away from a single meal and Seras found herself feeding from another blood bag, but once again that wasn't enough.

_One more._

But even after a third blood bag, her ravenous hunger continued to gnaw at her.

_I should stop._

Yet Seras found herself tearing open a fourth blood bag, and then a fifth. Her thoughts and dreams had been dominated by blood for weeks now, waiting for this moment, and now she couldn't bring herself to stop. Seras gorged herself on every single blood bag that she had taken. Relishing the feeling as her energy returned to her. Only when the very last drop of that crimson juice was drained, was her hunger finally satiated. She lay down on the hill, staring at the starry sky.

_I'm going to regret doing that_.

But for now Seras couldn't hold back a smile. She felt better than she had in weeks. The blood flowing through her was pure bliss. She looked over to the base. It was at least a mile away, but it would be hours before sunrise and she could run there in just a few minutes.

As Seras lay there, she pictured what it would be like to drink blood from the living, maybe even pure virgin blood. If she thought this medical blood tasted delicious, then fresh, warm blood would be ecstasy. Maybe she could go back to base….find one of the drugged up soldiers in the infirmary and…

_Stop it!_

She berated herself for thinking about feeding from the living. The temptation was always there, and Seras constantly fought to keep her instincts in check.

_If I don't control my desires, then I'm no better than the vampires that Hellsing hunts._

She took a deep breath and tried to forget about blood for a minute. To forget about the soldiers, Integra, Alucard, and everything else. She cleared her mind and just focused on the starry sky.

Finally relaxing, Seras slowly drifted into sleep.


	5. A Situation

Chapter 5 – A Situation

"I'm afraid we have a situation, Sir Integra."

Colonel William Parker stood at attention in Sir Integra Hellsing's office. The man looked more like an ogre, standing over six feet tall with a clean shaven head and numerous scars from battle. In the past six months Integra had known him, she'd never seen his battle scarred face with so much as a smirk. But she didn't care about what he looked like. The Colonel had been one of her best choices, quick to the point, no nonsense and unwavering in the line of duty. Integra needed someone like that to lead Hellsing's soldiers.

"Report, Colonel."

"Three days ago we lost contact with Squads 5 and 18," Parker began. "They were investigating a possible vampire presence in Harborough. Our intelligence before we lost them suggests they are all KIA."

Integra's face darkened. The Annihilators and the Watchdogs were two of the best squads that Hellsing had. Parker had disagreed with giving squad's nicknames but Integra was adamant. They were asking these men and women to face certain death on a regular basis; the least they could do was give them more than just numbers as designations.

The name's fit too. The Watchdogs specialized in surveillance, recon and overwatch, while the Annihilators would eliminate their targets with extreme prejudice. Together, the two squads had accomplished some of the most difficult missions, often involving multiple vampires.

"Three days ago. Why did you wait all this time to tell me?" Her voice had just a tint of anger mixed in.

"The squads were investigating an underground network they believed housed several vampires. We lost radio contact when they went in. I've spent the last three days trying to piece together what had happened."

Integra softened. She didn't like to be kept out of the loop, but at least the delay hadn't been due to incompetence. Parker wanted to make sure that when he came to Integra, he had at least some sort of idea of what the situation was.

"So what do we know?"

Parker shook his head. "Unfortunately very little. It seems that there is a large group of vampires situated in a massive underground network on the outskirts of Harborough. The entrance we found was collapsed after we lost radio contact. However, I've been able to locate another possible entrance to stage an attack. I recommend we either bomb the area or send in a large strike force to eliminate the threat. We could use the new prototypes."

"We still have very little knowledge of the nature of these vampires. I won't allow more lives to be lost senselessly." Integra grimaced. "And there's no way we can hide a bomb detonation from the public."

Parker remained silent, at a loss for words. He looked like a statue; his eyes were squinted as the morning light shone at him through the windows of Integra's office. No doubt he had spent the last three days making plans for either of these options and Integra had rejected them in seconds. But then Integra knew things he didn't, which was why she was in command and he worked for her.

"I will handle the situation, colonel; you are dismissed."

Parker looked anything but relieved. He clearly wanted to know how Integra planned to deal with such a large vampire infestation, but one icy glare from her kept him from voicing his concerns. He was a loyal soldier but even he had limits. He remained at attention, hoping Integra would reconsider and tell him what she was planning.

"I said you were dismissed, Parker." Integra repeated more sternly. She was accustomed to being obeyed and this time Parker immediately saluted, turned on his heels and marched out of her office.

Alone now, Integra stood up and began looking through the many folders she kept in her office. She made sure she had the most up to date information on all the squads and their missions at hand at all times. Finding what she was looking for, Integra retrieved a single folder labeled Squad 13.

The Wild Geese

Integra began reading through it. Since finishing their training, The Wild Geese had accomplished almost a dozen missions in France, Russia and Britain, all without incident except for their most recent. Integra raised an eyebrow; Seras had been assigned as recon but had also been the one to eliminate the target. Integra carefully read over each report.

Seras' report was short, clean cut and modest. She had spotted the vampire about to kill their squad leader and taken out the target from a distance. Just from reading the report, you never would have realized what a monumental feat a precision shot like that took.

Sergeant Tristan Bennet was far more detailed in his report. The notes were comprehensive and professional, befitting of a former SAS operative. The Sergeant provided an in-depth account of the entire mission, along with commentary when appropriate. He had allowed himself to be tricked by a vampire into believing it was human and recommended a new training exercise in threat assessment to prevent anyone from making his mistake again. There was also a note nominating Seras for a commendation.

Integra couldn't find a report from Corporal Brian Hayes. A quick glance through the files showed that the Corporal, who went by the nickname "Brock", had never bothered to submit a mission report on any of their missions. Integra made a mental note to talk to Parker about this.

That left the report from the squad medic, Valerie Clarke. It seemed to read similarly to Tristan's, until Integra neared the end of the mission. Apparently, Valerie had been more than just impressed by Seras' shot. She expressed a significant amount of interest in Seras, requesting information on where Seras had been trained and if the weapon had been modified in any way. It was difficult to tell whether Valerie was suspicious or if her interest was purely professional. Either way, there would be a problem if she kept digging.

Integra looked at Valerie's file. Valerie had lost her entire family in the Nazi attack and, no surprise, hated vampires passionately. Her medical expertise was outstanding and she had been enlisted in the special force for three years before joining Hellsing. There were also a few disciplinary issues but nothing too serious. Mostly just men who'd taken a liking to the medic and, after not taking no for an answer, had been violently dissuaded. Overall though, she was an outstanding soldier.

Returning to the task at hand, Integra examined Seras' file. Other than the note from Valerie, there were no suspicions that Seras was anything more than an exemplary soldier. A cover story had been created to explain Seras' past, that she'd been recruited from the police force after her outstanding marksmanship had attracted the attention of the Hellsing organization. Integra had gone to great lengths to make sure that the truth about Seras remained a secret. Still, in the past six months she had been forced to distance herself from Seras for fear of attracting unwanted attention.

Integra began deliberating. Seras had proven just as useful in the new Hellsing military as Integra had hoped. But if she used Seras for this mission, there were bound to be questions that couldn't be answered. Integra didn't even dare tell Colonel Parker about the vampire in their army. While the colonel's qualifications were exemplary, Integra knew what he'd been through during the Nazi attack. His ordeal would undoubtedly color his opinion of vampires and there was no way to predict how he would react if told about Seras.

Why had she placed Seras among the Hellsing soldiers knowing all the risks involved? Integra grimaced as she remembered the Valentine attack on Hellsing. Almost one hundred soldiers under her command had been turned into ghouls. Even now, Integra still felt haunted by their ghosts, men and woman who had trusted their lives with her. She had failed them, but she would make sure the new Hellsing military had every edge she could give them, even if that had meant putting Seras, and herself, at risk.

But on the other hand, there was a large group of vampires on British soil, within striking distance of London. This group had the potential to be just as dangerous as Millennium and needed to be eliminated as soon as possible. Parker might be able to get the job done, but Integra couldn't risk any vampires escaping into the civilian population. She sighed, there was only one option left to her then. Integra's duty came before all else. She picked up her phone and contacted the military base.

"Have Seras Victoria report to the Hellsing mansion as soon as possible."

After she hung up, Integra stood and called for one of her aides. There were preparations to be made.

* * *

AN: Woo! I have three followers. That's three people who've actually taken an interest in my story enough to want updates! I was going to wait a few days before publishing another chapter, but I've decided to just put it up now.

Also, I wanted to give a special thanks to my friend who goes by the alias 'meepslive'. He not only helped me fix my atrocious grammar, but also gave me comments on my story and kept me motivated to keep writing. There's no way I would've written as much as I have if it weren't for him.


	6. The Catacombs

AN: Thank you so much for all the favorable reviews, it's the reason why I'm publishing this chapter even though I haven't written a new one yet.

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Chapter 6 – The Catacombs

"Stop crying you idiot!" Newt frantically whispered to her friend. Beetle was just barely over nine years old, but no younger than she had been when her new life had begun. The boy was curled in a ball in the corner of his room. The barely lit, stone room actually looked more like a cell. Buried deep underground, their only luxuries were a bloodstained mattress, an itchy blanket and a torn up pillow. Beetle should consider himself lucky; Newt didn't even have a pillow.

"My name's Brandon, not Beetle!" the boy managed to gasp out in between his sobs. Newt groaned in frustration. Beetle had been here for over a month and still hadn't learned anything. The Masters had already become impatient with him, if they saw him now it could mean his death.

She heard footsteps coming down the corridor. One of the Masters was coming here! She looked at the sobbing boy in desperation, pleading with him to be quiet. Couldn't he hear the footsteps? Didn't he know what would happen if he was seen like this? Seeing no other choice, Newt slapped the boy in the face. She was strong for a twelve year old girl and the surprise of the sudden attack managed to stun the boy.

Just then one of the Masters came into view and entered the room. Newt gasped in horror and surprise as she recognized the ruler of the Catacombs and most powerful of the Masters. Seriphus towered over her, his dark, red eyes reflecting a malice and hunger shared by all the Masters. He scrutinized Beetle, who lay frozen in fear.

"I thought I may have heard someone crying. Could that have been you, Beetle?" Seriphus spoke slowly and deliberately as he leaned in closer to Beetle. His quiet voice radiated with a sense of authority and power which echoed in the small room. Beetle shook his head weakly, too afraid to move any more than that.

"That's what I thought, Beetle. To give into one's sorrow is a sign of weakness, and do you know what happens to the weak?" Once again Beetle shook his head. Seriphus leaned in closer, his face mere inches from Beetle's. He grinned, exposing rows of sharp teeth. "The weak are devoured by the strong."

Newt half expected Seriphus to kill Beetle then and there. Strength was all that kept you alive in the Catacombs, and if you didn't learn that quickly, then you would die. Instead, Seriphus seemed to forget Beetle and turned his attention to her.

"Newt," Seriphus began, his grin never fading. "I wish for you to join me in running an…errand."

With that Seriphus turned, left the room and began to walk down the corridor where he came from. Newt knew she was expected to follow, and did so without question. Despite her fear, she couldn't help but be curious about what the master of Masters wanted from her. As she left the room she could hear Beetle starting to sob again. She sighed. Since she was taken three years ago there had been over a dozen other children, but none of them had lasted for more than half a year. She took one last look at Beetle's curled up form before she followed after Seriphus. Beetle wouldn't even last the week.

_I was so hopeful for him too…_

Seriphus remained deathly silent as he navigated through them through various chambers. The braziers throughout the Catacombs made his shadow dance across the walls. The Catacombs were a massive, ancient underground network of corridors and passages. Newt guessed it was centuries old and even after all these years there were still tunnels she had yet to travel. The passage that Seriphus led her down was one such passageway.

The two came to a great wooden gateway at the end of the tunnel. Two guards stood silently protecting the door. Newt wanted to cringe at the smell of rotting flesh and their sightless eyes but knew better than to show weakness like Beetle. The guards were nothing more than rotting corpses. They'd once been full of life like Newt, until their blood had been drained and now they were cursed to be the Masters' slaves for eternity.

Either from recognizing Seriphus or obeying some unspoken command, the ghouls immediately opened the door allowing them into the inner sanctum. Newt couldn't help but be in awe at what she saw next.

The door led to a great, stone chamber. Along the sides of the chamber stood dozens of the Masters, each with their own personal retinue of ghouls. Some of the Masters looked old and weary, others young and full of life. Newt gasped as she realized that _all_ the Masters were here at once, a gathering she'd never seen in her life. They all seemed to have their attention focused on a slab in the center of the chamber. On it was chained the first human, adult man Newt had seen in years. He was barely conscious, his clothes, which were some sort of uniform, were soaked in blood. Most likely his own. The Masters eyed him greedily like a delicious meal, but something was keeping them from acting on their impulses.

"Seriphusssss," hissed one of the Masters as he bowed. His tongue had been split, reminding Newt of a viper. "We have waited as per your instructionssssss." The Master looked at Newt, seeming to notice her for the first time. "And what is the child doing here?"

Newt didn't know his name. She barely knew the names of any of the Masters except for Seriphus. She couldn't even remember her own name, the one from before she was taken. Not that it mattered; it was a waste of energy trying to remember a name from a distant life, when she should be focusing on surviving in this one. Newt was her name now and that was all she needed.

"I believe the time has come for the child to prove herself, Darius," replied Seriphus; now Newt knew the Master's name. "And she has some advantages that we do not."

Darius raised an eyebrow and inspected Newt. What could a small human girl do that the great Masters could not? Sensing his doubts, Seriphus continued.

"She can feel pain. True, human pain that we have long since forgotten." Seriphus looked at Newt, then to the figure on the slab and grinned. "It will be that understanding which will allow her to succeed where we have failed."

He gestured to Newt. "Go, mortal, make this man tell us what he knows."

Newt became aware that all the Masters were now looking right at her, their cold eyes scrutinizing her every move. Some of them watched her with interest, others with doubt and a few, hiding in the shadows, with hunger. She walked over to the man, trying to look strong under the gaze of so many Masters. The slab was half her height, as if it had been prepared just for her.

_Show no weakness. The weak are devoured by the strong. Show no weakness._

As she came up to the man, he dimly seemed to notice her through his agony. The Masters had a variety of books she was expected to learn from. To expand her knowledge was another way to show her usefulness. At first it had been difficult since Newt didn't know how to read, but in the last three years she had read dozens of books ranging from history to biology to warfare. Even so, she didn't recognize the emblem on the man's uniform, which had the words, "Hellsing: We are on a mission from God" and below it, crudely stitched on were the words, "The Annihilators."

Hellsing? A mission from God? Newt had lost faith in god years ago, after years of unanswered prayers. But what did the Masters want from her and this man?

The man had clearly been tortured, but it seemed as though the Masters had been uncertain. It had been so long since they had been threatened and felt pain that they had forgotten the sensation. They'd also been careful not to kill the man. The cuts, while painful, were only superficial.

On the slab were arrayed a variety of tools. Knives, needles and other torture devices, many covered in the man's blood already. Newt could feel her limbs go weak as cold clarity finally hit her. She understood what the Masters wanted from her. Why her ability to feel pain gave her an advantage.

Newt, a twelve year old girl, would have to torture this man.

Newt didn't want to hurt this man. But if she refused then the Masters would kill her and then him. If it came down to that she would do whatever was necessary to survive, just as always.

_But there has to be a way out of this!_

Her mind was racing, considering her options. She could still feel the Masters watching her, waiting for her to act. They watched expectantly as Newt slowly reached for a blood-soaked knife.

_Show no weakness…._

"This is pointlesssss. The human girl won't b-"

"Silence!" Seriphus snapped at Darius. "You had your chance, let's see what our little Newt does."

Seriphus looked at Newt expectantly. "He and men like him broke into the Catacombs and killed four of our kind. We need to know what this…Hellsing is."

Newt did her best to mask her surprise. The Masters were immortal, undying monsters. How could a normal man kill one of them? Newt noticed that the man was staring at her now. He didn't look afraid, or angry, but instead looked tired, like he just wanted to go home. She couldn't help but sympathize with him. She knew what that feeling was like. Her family had been killed in front of her and she'd been taken to be raised by monsters. Just like her, this man would never see his home again. The slab he lay on would be where he died. She could see in his eyes that the man knew it too. He wanted to die knowing that he had been a loyal soldier to whatever Hellsing was.

That's when Newt realized what she had to do. She placed the knife back on the table. No matter how much he was tortured, this man would never betray Hellsing. Newt leaned next to his ear and began whispering. She brought voice to her own fears; fears that she had carried with her for the past three years, which were now shared with this man. Now the man did look afraid, his face seemed to grow even paler.

Seriphus had been right; Newt had an advantage over the Masters in that she could feel pain. But it hadn't just been pain that she'd been living with for the past three years. In her own private hell she'd sunk to the depths of misery, hopelessness, anger, hate and more. They had been her only companions and she knew them intimately. Newt knew exactly where to push and what to say in order to break through the soldier's mental barriers. The soldier had been prepared to die for Hellsing. But Newt's words brought to life a fear even stronger than the fear of death and threatened him with a pain only his own mind could provide. One by one, Newt cut every strand of hope and loyalty left to the man, watching him carefully as he gave in to despair. Finally, she offered him a single way out of the terror. A way to escape this hell.

By the time she was finished, the man's face was frozen in horror. Newt locked her eyes with his and spoke two words.

"Tell them."

Now the man spoke without hesitation. The Masters looked on in awe as he told them everything that he had withheld in torture, and more. He gave away Hellsing's location, strength, the history of the organization, how it had been founded by an ancestor of Sir Integra Hellsing to hunt down vampires, and anything and everything that the Masters would want to know. When he had finished talking about the organization, he only waited a few moments to catch his breath before going into details about the Hellsing soldiers. He spoke about each squad and their strength and weaknesses, unit tactics and weaponry. After several minutes the soldier was finished. His ragged breath echoed in the chamber.

"Yessssss," began Darius. "You were right about the girl. She has proven herself useful after all." Darius began to stalk towards the soldier, a hungry glint in his eyes. "And now it is time that we fed."

Before any of the Masters could react, Newt grabbed hold of one of the knives on the slab and plunged it into the soldier's heart. The man began convulsing as spurts of blood erupted from his mouth. The Masters, fascinated by the unexpected murder, silently watched with interest as Newt drove the knife deeper into the man's chest. Finally, when he couldn't struggle for life any longer, the man took one final look at Newt before his eyes grew lifeless.

_"You're welcome,"_ thought Newt. She couldn't help but feel a bit jealous. That soldier had escaped his hell, but Newt was still trapped in hers. She turned from the body and saw that Darius was furious. She had robbed him of his kill and he was prepared to slay her for this sleight. But before he could act on his whims, Seriphus began laughing.

Seriphus' laughter conveyed the cruelty and malice that only one of the Masters could possess. It echoed across the vast chamber, making it sound like the walls themselves were laughing with him. Newt felt her blood curl as the laughter grew louder. Finally, after what felt like far too long, Seriphus regained control and addressed all of the Masters.

"It appears our little Newt is proving herself quite well." Seriphus had a wide grin on his face once again. "One day it may be she shall prove herself worthy of joining our ranks." He turned to Newt. "You may leave now, Newt. I and the other Masters have quite a bit to discuss. But one day you shall tell me what it was that you whispered to that man."

Eager to get away from Darius and the other Masters, Newt quickly left the chamber, but it wasn't back to her dark room that she walked. She expertly navigated the many corridors of the Catacombs and it only took a few minutes before she arrived at the library. The room was massive, only rivaled by the chamber she had just left. Rows and rows of books from every kind of subject were here. Some of them were old and falling apart after decades of age while others seemed brand new. Newt had countless hours among these books. The precious tomes acted as windows to the world outside the Catacombs. They taught her how to survive and told stories of faraway times and places. Up until now she had read only the more recent books that were better preserved, but now Newt was looking through the older books. To her surprise she found dozens of books on the subject of her interest:

_Vampires_

The Masters weren't the only ones who had learned something today. Until now Newt had thought the Masters were unknown to scholars, since all humans they encountered seemed to inevitably die. But she hadn't known what the Masters truly were. That single word had opened up a world of knowledge for Newt. As she opened the first book, she smiled for the first time that she could remember. Now she knew that the Masters, these vampires, could be killed, and now, with the help of these books, she would learn exactly how to do it.

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AN: Now I haven't been sure whether or not vampires can actually feel pain. I figured they'd only feel it if they were severely injured or encountered blessed/silver weapons. Either way, I decided that the Masters probably aren't used to being in either of those situations so they were a bit rusty on the art of interrogation.


	7. Commendation

Chapter 7 – Commendation

The hotel room was littered with blood. The floor, walls and ceiling were all decorated by the bodies of the policemen. Innocent men who had just been following orders from corrupt leaders. Victims of circumstance who posed no real threat to Seras or her master. Alucard had slaughtered them all just the same.

"Seras, prepare for battle."

"But… master these people…these are humans…"

"Your point?"

Alucard's nonchalance shocked Seras. She'd known that her master was cruel and savage, but only to the enemies of Hellsing, ghouls and vampires who threatened humanity. She had never even seen him kill a human before.

Well, except when Alucard had killed her. But he had brought her back! He'd made her a vampire! Couldn't he see that these people were no threat? Couldn't he see that…that…

"These people are human beings!"

Her master whirled around, grabbed her by the collar and lifted her off the ground. The twisted glee he usually wore on his face was replaced with anger.

"I don't care what these things are! They came here to try and kill us. It no longer matters what they are. Now they must die. They'll be slaughtered. Corpses, left to rot in their graves like filth! This is just the way it is. This is what has to be done, and no one has the power to change that. Not God, the Devil or you!"

As Alucard finished speaking, his body faded away and Seras dropped to the ground, left in the room full of corpses. She looked around and noticed that the bodies that were beginning to look familiar. Seras gasped as she saw Valerie's head posed on the floor, her face frozen in terror. Then there was Brock, sliced in half by her master, the wall painted with his blood. Tristan was leaning against the wall as if he was resting, but his heart had been ripped out of his chest. Seras looked on in horror as one by one she recognized the corpses of other Hellsing soldiers, all arrayed in a macabre tableau.

Seras felt the urge to look down and saw that her hands, arms and entire body were covered in the blood of her friends.

_I killed them._

Seras fell to her knees, stunned by what she'd done. The corpses all seemed to be staring at her now, silently blaming her for their death. Their hate and condemnation took physical form as the room caught on fire. The flames licked at Seras as they drew closer and closer. The room smelled of burning flesh and soon the fire had caught on Seras' clothing. She looked around desperately for an escape, but there was only fire. As she felt her skin ignite, the voice of her master rang in her mind.

_This is just the way it is…_

She screamed-

-and opened her eyes to find herself looking at a massive fireball in the sky. The sun.

It took a moment for Seras to realize she was back on the hill, that it had all just been a terrible dream. She sighed in relief. The sunlight was uncomfortable but it was far better than the burning room and after all the blood she had drank the previous night, it barely weakened her at all.

That's when it hit her.

_It's already morning!_

Seras quickly got up and began running. Despite the temptation to run at full speed, she slowed her pace to human standards in case she was seen. It felt painfully slow to Seras, and it took her several minutes before she got back to base. As she came up to the gate guard, she almost forgot to look winded.

"Hey Seras, what're you doing here?"

Seras knew the soldier, although she couldn't remember his name just now. Once again, there were no regulations against leaving the base, but it still looked strange to do so without reason.

"Oh you know…" she said, as she tried to think of what it is the guard knew…

"I…thought I'd go for a jog and see the area…watch the sunrise…" She blushed as she realized how lame her story was. The guard just laughed.

"Nothing wrong with wanting to get away from the base for a few hours." The guard didn't seem overly concerned. Why would he? Seras was a fellow soldier, not a prisoner and this was just casual conversation.

"You'd better hurry though, morning briefings already over."

Seras gave quick thanks as she went into the base, mentally berating herself for looking so stupid. The base was a flurry of activity and her arrival went unnoticed. Everyone seemed to be busy with something. Some soldiers were shooting at an outdoor target range, playing football on the improvised court or gearing up for a mission abroad. Seras wasn't used to seeing the base during daylight hours, usually preferring to stay inside unless called on for a mission.

"Hey Seras!"

Seras didn't recognize any of the passing men, but they obviously seemed to know her. She gave a quick greeting and kept walking.

"Morning, Seras." said another soldier who looked up from a book he was reading. Seras recognized him and they had some quick conversation before she moved on.

This continued as she crossed the length of the base towards the mess hall. Men and women who Seras had only barely been acquainted with seemed eager to start conversation with her. She spent the better part of an hour talking with soldiers about the weather, their missions, weapon maintenance and a variety of other topics. Seras realized that it had been a long time since she'd spoken about anything that wasn't a life or death situation and found herself enjoying the casual conversation. It made her almost feel like a human again, if not for the irritation of the sun and the thirst for blood that was already returning. She spoke so rarely with soldiers outside of her squad that she was surprised to discover her marksmanship had earned her a reputation in Hellsing.

"Hey police girl!"

Seras was startled by the use of her old nickname. She turned to see Valerie running towards her followed by a massive man who could only be Brock.

"We've been lookin' absolutely everywhere for you Seras." The big man towered over her, his deep voice made him sound even more intimidating, but he wore a big smile on his face.

"Ya, where the hell have you been?" Valerie looked less amused, but then she never seemed that happy so it was tough to tell.

"I wa-"

"Actually, it doesn't matter, follow me." Valerie cut her off and began walking to the infirmary. Seras began to panic. Had they found out about the stolen blood bags? What if someone had seen her last night? But then if they suspected something why were they acting so friendly?

"Relax." Brock patted her on the back. "The boss is fine, you don't need to look so worried." Now Seras felt a bit guilty. She hadn't even thought about their injured squad leader, but if this wasn't about him then what was it about? Her teammates had swept her up so quickly she hadn't been able to get a word out.

"What's going on? Why are we heading to the infirmary?" Seras thought for a moment and added, "and why'd you call me police girl?"

Brock and Valerie looked amused by Seras' confusion.

"Well _somebody_ didn't show up for briefing this mornin' and wasn't there to receive her own commendation." Brock was in a cheery mood as usual, Seras had never seen the giant upset, which she considered a blessing. Then she registered what Brock had said.

"Oh…" was all Seras managed to say. She had hoped that her absence would have gone unnoticed. But if she had missed her own award ceremony, that looked bad.

_Really bad._

"Don't worry too much about it," Valerie could tell what Seras was thinking, "I told Colonel Parker that you were at the infirmary checking up on Tristan, which is why we have to get there before he does"

"Thanks Val." Lying to a commanding officer was a serious offense. Valerie had taken a real risk by covering for Seras.

"Don't mention it." Valerie winked at her. "And as for calling you police girl, Brock said he heard a rumor that were in the force before signing up with Hellsing."

"It was a long time ago…" Seras had spent her childhood single-mindedly trying to become a police officer. It had been all that she had wanted in life. But that was before she had watched her friends killed before her eyes by a vampire. Before Alucard had shot a bullet through her heart and turned her. Now her time as a police officer was both figuratively and literally a lifetime ago. She couldn't help but wonder what her life would be like if she hadn't been called for that mission. She'd probably still be alive and human back home. Vampires and werewolves would still be locked in fairytales.

"Cheddar, right?"

"What?" Seras had been lost in thought.

"You were stationed near Cheddar Village, right?" Valerie asked again.

Seras nodded. They were coming up to the infirmary now. The building seemed much more welcoming during daylight hours with its painted red cross clearly visible. As they entered the building, Seras felt relieved to get out of the sunlight. All the time outside had started to take its toll. The group quickly navigated their way to where Tristan was resting. Seras noticed that Alex, the soldier who'd lost an arm, was gone.

Tristan seemed far more alert than the previous night. His bandages had been replaced and he looked well on his way to recovery. He brightened as he saw he noticed his squad coming towards him but winced in pain as he leaned up to greet them. His greeting was cut off as Valerie explained the situation and that Colonel Parker would be here any second.

"You want me to lie to our commanding officer?" Tristan laughed at the absurdity of the request, and then flinched when the laughter made his ribs hurt.

"Hey, if Parker hears that Seras was absent because she was watching out for an injured friend, then he'll go easy on the girl." Brock had a point. "Plus don't ya think you owe it to her?"

"You saved my life Seras, and as a squad we should watch out for each other…" Tristan seemed indecisive as he looked at Seras. "But he's our _colonel_! We have rules for a reason."

Tristan was right of course, but Seras needed him to support her. She was about to say something when Colonel Parker entered the room.

"Sir!"

The Wild Geese stood at attention, except for Tristan who could only lean up on his bed and try to salute.

"At ease, Squad 13," went Colonel Parker's brusque reply. The man never referred to squads by their nicknames, preferring to stay professional. There were officers in command who you could relax around, and be yourself with, maybe even make a joke at their expense. Colonel Parker wasn't one of those. The man was always serious, and didn't tolerate tardiness in his outfit. He eyed each member of The Wild Geese as he walked over to Tristan.

"Sergeant, I was informed that Seras Victoria was with you all morning. Is that true?"

Tristan seemed to hesitate. Colonel Parker towered over him.

"Uh…yes sir. Seras was here with me," he lied.

Seras didn't dare let out a breath of relief as the Colonel turned his attention to her.

"I admire a soldier who looks out for her teammates." That was the closest thing to a compliment Seras had ever heard from the colonel. "But your absence this morning was hardly the actions of a dedicated soldier. I've got half a mind to take away this commendation and put you on guard duty for the rest of the month. This will not happen again. Understood soldier?" Parker leaned in closer to her, staring her down, daring Seras to make a move.

Part of her wanted to throttle the colonel then and there. But just a small part. As much as she didn't like the Colonel; she was a soldier and he was her commanding officer.

"Yes sir! It won't happen again, sir."

"See that it doesn't, corporal." Colonel Parker reached into his pocket and pulled out a small box.

"You've been a hell of a soldier Seras Victoria. I've read the reports; you've saved a lot of lives." Parkers face seemed to lose just a trace of his gruff exterior as he opened up the box revealing a shining silver cross. "This award reflects your status as one of Hellsing's best. I've only given this out to a handful of soldiers. Don't make me regret giving it to you". It wasn't the best speech, but it was still the best thing anyone had heard from Parker.

The glittering commendation was waiting for her to claim it, but something was wrong. Seras hesitated. She looked at her squad, all of them looked happy for her. But she was struggling to stay calm as she felt a cold sliver of fear growing inside of her. Her gaze was locked on the commendation, sitting innocently in its box.

_Stupid! How couldn't I see this coming!?_

Hellsing was an anti-vampire organization. Every aspect of the organization was dedicated towards that goal. Why wouldn't that be reflected in its awards too? She took another nervous glance at her squad, and at Parker's expectant gaze. They were waiting for her to take the cross.

The cross that was intricately carved, bore the Hellsing insignia on it, and was made of pure, blessed silver!

_The moment I touch that, my hands will burn…_

"I'm waiting, corporal." Parker was beginning to look impatient, and her squad was waiting for her. She slowly reached out her hand to take the cross.

_They'll know I'm a vampire! They'll know everything!_

Seras' mind was racing. Each second seemed to stretch out for her. What could she do? Maybe if she accidently knocked the box out of the colonel's hands? No, that wouldn't achieve anything. Why not just take the entire box? No, they were expecting her to put the commendation on now. The only option left was to take the cross and keep everyone from noticing her pain. It was a long shot, but also her only hope. Her hand was closing in on the cross. Seras braced herself for the inevitable sting of the blessed silver.

"Corporal Victoria!"

Everyone turned as a soldier barged into the room, almost falling over. Seras recognized him as Private Mackenzie Walker. Mac's brown hair was completely unkempt, and he was covered in sweat. He paused for a minute to catch his breath before he realized that there were other people in the room, all of whom were now staring at him in surprise.

The private was something of a joke among the Hellsing soldiers. The poor man was frequently given the most distasteful jobs and acted as a gopher for higher ranking soldiers. But he was a hard worker and when you needed something, Mac could get it for you.

"Uh, s-sir! Colonel Parker, sir!" the private awkwardly saluted. He was becoming uncomfortably aware that he was the lowest ranking soldier in the room.

Even as Colonel Parker inevitably yelled at Mac for barging in, Seras couldn't help but be thankful for the reprieve. If Mac hadn't shown up when he did, things could be very different right now. It was almost comedic, Parker taking out all his anger on the unfortunate private who looked like a deer in headlights. As she looked at the faces of her squad, Seras could tell she wasn't the only one who thought so. Finally, there was a lull in Parker's tantrum and Mac was able to get out his message.

"It's Sir Integra, sir!"

Suddenly the humor died away. Even the colonel seemed taken aback. Sir Integra had never acted directly. She usually spoke with Parker, who would manage the day to day affairs of troop deployment and training. Most of the soldiers had never even seen Integra before since she seemed to spend all her time in Hellsing mansion or away playing politics. Rumors and stories had elevated the elusive leader to near mythical proportions.

"Well what does she want?" barked the colonel after controlling his surprise.

"She's requested Corporal Victoria's presence at the mansion." Now everyone was looking at Seras. "That was several hours ago, I've been trying to find the corporal all morning."

So that explained why Mac was exhausted and covered in sweat, but not why Integra wanted to see her.

Seras watched the Colonel closely. His brow was wrinkled in thought, but when he noticed Seras his expression changed back to his usual shade of anger.

"You heard him, corporal! Sir Integra's expecting you. Get a move on." He unceremoniously tossed the commendation, still in its box, at Seras. She caught it and gingerly placed it in her pocket before quickly running out of the room.

The colonel was next to leave, his expression darkening, followed by Mac, who was eager to rest now that his task was complete. That left the remainder of Squad 13.

"The hell just happened?" Brock asked to no one in particular. Tristan looked equally perplexed, as he lay back in his bed. One second they were giving Seras a commendation, and now she was gone on some errand for the infamous Integra Hellsing.

"I don't know." Valerie looked serious; something was wrong.

"But I plan to find out."


	8. In Utter Darkness

Chapter 8 – In Utter Darkness

"Why shouldn't I just eat you now?"

Newt looked up from the century old book on vampires she had been studying. Two large piles were on the table. One contained the books she had already read, and other was the many vampire books she planned to read. She hadn't noticed Darius sitting across from her, an angry glint in his eyes. Newt had been expecting this encounter eventually. By killing the human soldier, she had unintentionally taken Darius' kill and made him look weak to the other Masters. Now he was out for vengeance against the human girl he blamed.

The only problem was that he was weak, or at least he was compared to Seriphus who ruled the Catacombs. After Newt had impressed the Masters with getting the information from the Hellsing operative, it became clear that she was a favorite of Seriphus. It seemed as though Seriphus now valued her life, above that of Darius'. He knew it, and she knew it.

"I wouldn't be much of a meal. Just skin and bones." It was true. Finding food was always a challenge for Newt. Since the Masters no longer required human food, Newt had to fend for herself. Usually she would search the bodies of ghouls who had recently been reanimated for anything the person was carrying before they died. She'd found a pump in one of the chambers that gave clean water. Newt had no idea why it was installed but at least it meant she wouldn't die of thirst.

"A virgin like you would be delicious," hissed Darius, "but I suppose you're right. There's hardly any blood in you. Not like those Hellsing thingsssss."

"You know where their bodies are?" Newt couldn't keep the excitement from her voice. Just as the books she'd been reading were an invaluable source of vampire knowledge, the soldiers would have been carrying the weapons and tools to kill vampires. Not to mention their rations.

"Yessssss, I can take you to them." A wry grin appeared on his face as Darius stood up and gestured towards the library exit. "After you."

Newt sensed a trap. Darius wanted to kill her and the Masters never acted out of selflessness. But she desperately needed to see the bodies of the Hellsing soldiers. She carefully closed the ancient tome and stood up.

After working her way through the many books and scrolls about vampires, Newt had come to a realization.

She wanted to become a vampire.

But, as she had learned, a vampire is bound to its master unless it drinks its master's blood. So Newt had come up with a plan. She would allow Seriphus to turn her into a vampire, and then once she had been turned she would kill him with a weapon of silver and drink his blood. With his power, she would kill all the Masters and be free to…well, she hadn't thought that far yet.

But all this required the Hellsing weapons. Which is why, despite the risk, she allowed Darius to lead her through the many corridors of the Catacombs. As she followed Darius, Newt became aware that there were less and less Masters present. Even the ghouls seemed absent from this part of the Catacombs. If Darius was going to kill her, this would be the place.

_I'm under Seriphus' protection. Darius wouldn't dare hurt me…_

_Would he?_

Darius came to a stop in the middle of a nondescript hallway. Newt had passed by here a hundred times before but she silently watched as Darius traced the ancient stone wall with his ghoulish hands. Eventually he came to a stop and a smirk of satisfaction crossed over him as he pushed one of the bricks inwards. Newt involuntarily stepped back as the walls receded like a gaping maw. The hidden room reeked of death.

"You'll find the Hellsing corpses in there." Darius took a torch from the adjacent wall and aimed it at the hidden room. "Among with… othersssss".

Newt looked on in horror as she saw dozens of shambling forms at the edge of the light. Their decrepit, blood-soaked bodies wandered the room aimlessly. Some of the bodies seemed as though they'd been rotting for decades, while others looked only months old, but Newt could feel the blood drain from her face as she realized what they all had in common.

"They're…children." She could barely get the words out. She was starting to recognize the various children she'd seen over the past three years. Children like her, who had disappointed the Masters.

"And another reason not to eat you yet is..." Darius gestured towards one of the ghouls. "That I already ate."

Newt followed Darius' gaze to the ghoul. It was fresh, only recently killed. Its sightless eyes looked as though they would fall out of its skull. Bones jutted out from its leg, caked by ripped flesh and gore. It had once been a boy, although it was tough to tell. Its chest had been ripped open, as if someone had pried through his rib cage to reach the delicious heart within. As it shambled closer into the light, Newt gasped as she recognized the ghoul.

_Beetle!_

Of course she had known he was dead. When he went missing, the only explanation was that the Masters had given up on him. But to see him as a ghoul was something else entirely. Newt couldn't keep the shock from her face.

"The children make poor guards and servantsssss." Darius laughed; he seemed to be taking a sick joy from watching Newt's reaction. "So we keep them in here, out of sight. They can at least dispose of unwanted corpses for usssss." Darius passed the torch to Newt.

"They'll leave you alone as long as you're in the light." Darius' lips parted in a sinister grin. "Or at least they might hesitate.". These ghouls weren't like the guards and servants the Masters used. They seemed wild and undirected, forgotten by their creators. They were no better than animals. Would they really hide from her light?

Newt only hesitated for a moment. She had spent the last three years as a plaything for monsters, struggling to survive each passing day. Inside that dark room was the key to escaping this hellish existence and not even the walking dead were going to keep her from that. Torch in hand, Newt stepped into the room.

"Be quiet too, mortal," Darius called out to her. "Don't want to startle the kidssssss."

_He's enjoying this._

Newt kept moving deeper into the room, focusing all her willpower to keep her hands from trembling. The ghouls only seemed to be peripherally aware of her presence. A few shied away from the light, while the others simply continued to aimlessly wander the room. Newt couldn't even tell how large the room was, the darkness seemed to be closing in around her and she couldn't see the walls. Darius continued to watch her from the entrance, clearly relishing in her fear.

_When I become a vampire…When I become more powerful than him…I'm going to make him suffer._

The Masters had taught Newt that mercy was a weakness, and she vowed one day to prove to Darius how much she had taken that lesson to heart.

Some of the ghouls seemed to becoming aware of her; their white eyes followed her as she crossed the room. They made no move to attack her, but that would change if Newt didn't hurry. Suddenly, something hit her foot and Newt held back a scream. She looked down to see that she had kicked a blood-soaked pile of flesh. Underneath all the gore she could barely make out the Hellsing insignia. The ghouls must have devoured whatever else was left. This sack of meat was useless to Newt. A pit formed in her stomach as she realized that Darius would have known this as well.

"Poor Newt." Darius stood at the entrance, his mocking laughter echoing throughout the room. "Killed by ghouls, when you were so close to becoming a Master." With that he triggered the hidden mechanism.

Newt watched in horror as the stone walls closed shut, trapping her inside. Darius had tricked her! She examined the wall and saw the there was no way to open it from within. This time she did scream; not out of fear, but out of anger and rage. Newt lost all semblance of awareness. They had taken her when she was nine and stolen any normal life she could have had. Now, when she was so close to the end, Darius had stolen her chance at freedom and revenge. All those years of suffering, of learning, of surviving would all end like this? Newt's voice rang out across the room like the scream of a banshee. She screamed until her throat. She screamed until her tears ran dry. She screamed until all of her energy left her and she fell limp to the ground.

The ghouls were aware of her now, and they were all slowly approaching her. They had her surrounded, with no chance of escape. Newt just lay on the ground, robbed of her will to live. The torch she had been carrying lay a few feet in front of her, and she silently watched as its light faded away. The ghouls were coming closer and closer, their rotting arms reaching out for her. As she stared at the flickering flame of the torch, Newt remembered the sun which she hadn't seen in over three years.

_I wish I could have seen it one last time…_

The flames died, and Newt was plunged into utter darkness.

* * *

AN: Thanks for all of the positive reviews. I'm very glad that people like my OCs. If anybody's worried though, Seras is still the main focus of the story. The goal of the OCs are to move the plot and develop Seras as a character.

I've written roughly 18 chapters and the entire story will probably be about 30. I'm trying to pace out when I publish the chapters since I haven't actually written anything in a couple weeks.

Please keep reviewing and letting me know what you think. It doesn't have to be praise. This is my first story and any constructive criticism is appreciated. What's your favorite chapter/OC so far? Least favorite? Anything that's gotten you interested or made you lose interest? I'm still writing the story so what you say could definitely have an impact on how things play out.


	9. Arrival

AN: Not a very exciting chapter, but it is a set up for what's to come.

* * *

Chapter 9 - Arrival

_Bang!_

Seras woke up with a start. Everything was shaking as if there was an earthquake. She winced as her head hit the top of the coffin again.

_Bang!_

This was ridiculous. Sir Integra wanted her to rest up for some special assignment, but how could she when the car was shaking so much? Seras wanted to climb out, but Integra had been explicit.

"Stay in the coffin until we reach our destination." Integra had said.

And Seras, bound to obey, had obediently climbed into the coffin.

_Bang!_

Seras groaned in frustration. Integra hadn't said much else. Six months without seeing each other and there hadn't been so much as a "How's it going, Seras?" or a "Sorry for taking away your powers, Seras." Or a "By the way, Seras! The awards are made of pure, blessed silver! Wouldn't want your hands to burn in front of all your friends!"

_Bang!_

Seras was fuming now. Her body was being thrown around like a ragdoll and she'd been trapped inside her own coffin for hours on her way to God knows where. Although she had a working theory about that. She guessed that there was some vampire threat. Something that was too high-risk for humans, so Integra had decided to send in Seras.

_Bang!_

But didn't Integra realize the risk involved? She had friends who would notice she was missing. Friends who would want to find out where Seras was going. She hadn't realized how attached she'd gotten to her squad. Didn't Integra care?

Finally the incessant banging and shaking came to an end. Seras could feel the car coming to a stop. Her eyes were useless inside the coffin, so she used her supernatural hearing to try and figure out what was going on outside.

It was amazing what you could figure out if you just listened. Seras could hear the wind rustling in some nearby trees, so they were outside. The sounds of crickets, owls and other nocturnal wildlife told her it was night time. Judging by how many, she guessed Integra had taken them far away from civilization. There was also something else. Some sort of echo to all the noise…

Seras felt the coffin open and was greeted by Integra's icy glare. She'd been ready to complain, or to ask questions, but Integra's face showed she was in no mood to give explanations. Seras would just have to trust that Integra knew what she was doing.

"Sleep well?" For a second Integra's serious exterior was replaced by genuine concern.

"Um, yes ma'am" muttered Seras. She realized that despite the rough awakening, resting in the coffin had been very refreshing.

"Good." And like that Integra was all business again. She stepped back allowing Seras to climb out of the trunk.

Seras took a moment to get a bearing for her surroundings. She was pleased to realize that the observations she'd made in the coffin were right. They were far from civilization, on some British outskirt. Integra had parked the car next to an outcropping of rocks at the bottom of a canyon.

_So that's what was causing the echo…and the shaking._

"I wasn't able to get the Harkonnen, so these will have to suffice." Integra gestured to the two massive weapons in the back seat.

Seras felt like a child getting new toys. While these machine guns weren't true vampire weapons like the Jackal or the Harkonnen, a normal human couldn't hope to use one of them without the proper equipment and set-up.

"They fire 600 0.5 caliber rounds a minute. Every bullet is blessed and contains a silver core."

Seras couldn't hold back a grin as she casually picked up one gun in each hand, each easily weighing fifty kilos and looped their ammo belts along her body. The bullets were small, but that didn't matter if she could pepper her target with dozens of bullets in seconds. It had been a long time since Seras had gotten to use a weapon that had any sort of punch.

"One more thing," Integra continued. "I won't be releasing your restraints."

"What!?" Seras immediately lost her grin. She had assumed that Integra would release her restraints for this mission. Why wouldn't she? It was just the two of them so Seras didn't have to pretend to be human anymore. She'd been looking forward to having her powers back again.

"But Sir Integr-"

"I'm not releasing your restraints and that's final!" Integra turned and began walking towards the rocky outcropping. "Now follow me."

Seras thought about arguing but realized she wouldn't stand much of a chance against Integra. Her powers, and her will, were owned by Integra, and only she could choose when those powers would surface.

"As you wish," Seras despondently followed Integra, "Master."

For the briefest moment Integra's cold exterior broke and her expression changed. Was it surprise? Sorrow? Anger? Fear? Guilt? Seras had supernatural reflexes and not even she was sure if it had just been her imagination.

"Don't call me that." Integra said vehemently.

Seras paused, she hadn't expected this kind of reaction. "Um. Yes… sir."

But Integra was her master. Now more than ever with Alucard gone. Ever since she'd become a vampire, Seras had been bound to the will of others.

They came up to the boulders that had been piled up against the canyon wall. They seemed unnatural and out of place as if they'd been placed here by a great giant or machine.

"Parker thinks this entrance has been permanently sealed so he shouldn't have people watching it." Integra turned to Seras, finally giving her some sort of explanation. "There's a large vampire lair underground that we need to eliminate. I don't know how many, or how strong."

"Understood, sir!" Seras let her weapons hang by their ammo belts and set to work clearing the boulders. It would have taken humans days with heavy machinery to clear it all, but Seras easily lifted the massive boulder and pushed them aside. After several minutes, she was able to expose a passageway into the cliff. It was only about five feet high, but she could tell it led deep underground.

Wordlessly they entered. Integra used a flashlight, while Seras could see through the pitch darkness with ease. The passage led deeper and deeper underground for several minutes. Eventually the ceiling grew higher, as the natural, rocky walls were replaced with man-made stone. It was difficult to tell how far they had travelled.

The tunnel finally ended at a great metal door. It looked thick and heavy and bore deep into the adjacent stone. Dust covered it and there were nails bolted from the inside to keep it shut. This door was clearly meant to remain sealed.

Impressive as it was, Seras would be able to break it open all the same.

"Remember my orders." Integra pulled out a large pistol. A modified SIG Sauer P226 with pure silver rounds.

Seras nodded. She'd never forget Integra's orders when dealing with the vampires. Orders that had been given by the Queen herself.

Seras took a step back and charged right through the door. As she began shooting at the undead forms within, her orders rang soundly in her mind.

_Search and destroy._


	10. Secrets

Chapter 10 - Secrets

"What do you mean you don't know anything?!"

Valerie was furious and all of her ire was focused on Mackenzie Walker who was cornered outside the barracks.

"She didn't say why she needed Seras? Where Seras was going? Anything at all?" Valerie had spent the better part of the day tracking down the private, and he was turning out to be a dead end.

"N-no-no." Mac couldn't hold back a stammer. He was the guy who pretty girls tended to ignore and he definitely wasn't used to being the subject of their anger. "All she s-said was that Seras was to report to the Hellsing Mansion im-immediately."

Valerie wasn't satisfied. Mac had to know more than he was telling. She was about to launch into a new string of questions when a massive hand grabbed her shoulder.

"That's enough Val." Valerie whirred around to see Brock towering over her. "Poor man's terrified."

She looked back at Mac and saw that Brock was right. Mac was an experienced soldier, used to fighting for his life in a hail of bullets, but not many people could weather the full brunt of Valerie's rage.

"Sorry private," Valerie admitted she had lost control a bit. "You're dismissed."Without another word Mac marched off, almost ran-away. It didn't seem like he had a destination, just that he wanted to get away from Valerie as quickly as possible. She blushed, realizing she really had gone too hard on the man.

Brock chuckled as he watched the private leave. "Poor guy." He turned to Valerie. "So what the hell was that all about?"

"It's Seras." Valerie recovered from her embarrassment quickly. "Don't you think it's strange that Integra is working directly with her? I feel like she's hiding something." It was more than just that. Seras was good, too good for an ex-police girl and Valerie had a bad feeling about her.

Brock raised an eyebrow. "Like what?"

"I don't know…" Valerie frowned. "But I don't like being kept in the dark."

Brock laughed. "And you think yelling at Mac's going to help you out? Our girl is clean as crystal, Doc. Don't believe me," Brock produced a piece of a piece of paper from his pockets and handed it to Valerie, "ask her last boss."

With that, Brock turned and began walking to the mess hall. Valerie examined the paper. It was the contact information for the Cheddar police force. She grinned; if Seras was hiding something then maybe her former coworkers would know. As she ran off to find a phone, it never even occurred to her to wonder why Brock was carrying the contact information.

The next hour was spent speaking to what felt like a dozen different police officers. As Valerie spoke with more and more of them, she realized that no one on the Cheddar Police Force seemed to even know a Seras Victoria.

Valerie sighed in frustration. "Is there anybody there who's heard of officer Seras Victoria?"

"Listen lady, I'm asking around and nobody…uh, hold on" the police constable abruptly ended the call and Valerie found herself being redirected to somebody else.

"This is Sergeant Anthony Hastings of the Cheddar police. Now tell me who you are and why you're interested in Seras!"

Valerie was taken aback by the suddenness of the questioning. Up until now, the officers had seemed uninterested in her; she hadn't expected her questions to yield this kind of a response. The man sounded in his fifties and even over the phone he conveyed a sense of authority.

"I'm uh…" She paused, and took a moment to regain her composure. Whoever this guy was, she needed to show him that she was in charge.

Valerie spoke again, doing her best to convey her own sense of authority. "This is Corporal Valerie Clark of-" She managed to catch herself before she mentioned Hellsing. "-The British Army."

"Really?" The man sounded skeptical, but at least he wasn't yelling anymore. "And what does the military want with Seras?"

Valerie could feel her heart starting to race. Finally, somebody who knew about Seras.

"That's need to know," she continued, hoping that would be enough. "What can you tell me about her? Why doesn't anybody else know who she is?"

"I can tell you she was a damn fine officer just like her father." Hastings sounded nostalgic, but became serious again as he continued. "And the reason nobody else knows Seras is because…" He paused, clearly not wanting to continue. "It's because… everyone else who knows her is dead."

"What!?"

_How can they all be dead?_

"It was that incident at the parish about a year ago…"

Valerie listened in silence as the sergeant described how there had been reports about a homicidal priest. At first it seemed like a typical psycho but then the men sent to stop him had gone missing. So they'd sent teams of police officers into the forest where the church was, only to have them go silent as well.

"They reported being attacked by our own men before we lost them," continued Hastings.

_Ghouls._

It was starting to make sense; the priest had been a vampire who'd killed the unprepared police.

"What about Seras?" Valerie had to know how she fit into this.

"The last team we sent in was an ARV team. Seras was with them. But just as we lost contact with them as well, some shady military group showed up and took command."

_So Hellsing showed up to deal with the vampire…_

"Next thing I know, we find out every officer we sent to that god-forsaken church is dead except for Seras. Some lady tells me that Seras is coming with them and then they all just up and leave."

"Just like that?" Valerie knew Hellsing was covert, but this was practically abduction. "Didn't anybody wonder what happened to her? Friends? Family?"

"Her folks died when she was just a kid. The only friends she had were the officers she'd gone to save, and they're all dead now." Hastings took on a somber tone. "The only one who missed her was me…"

Then he was silent. Valerie was at a loss for words. She'd expected to find out Seras had been hiding some malevolent secret, but instead she'd been hiding this bleak story of her past.

"Thank you." Valerie hung up before the sergeant could respond.

_Poor Seras…_

Valerie suddenly felt guilty. Seras had obviously wanted to keep her past a secret, but Valerie had invaded her privacy and betrayed her trust. She'd have to tell Seras about this, about Hastings, when she got back. It wasn't a conversation Valerie looked forward to.

But something was still wrong. That still didn't explain why Integra seemed so interested in Seras, or how Seras was such a skilled marksman for a police officer. Valerie thought back to what Hastings had said…

_"It was that incident at the parish about a year ago…"_

A year ago! Seras had already been a member of Hellsing six months before the rest of its military had joined. So there was more to this. Valerie forgot about her guilt as the mystery deepened. She turned and began heading towards the center of the base, to the only place she could find the answers she needed: the command post.

A part of her wanted to stop and forget about all this. Seras was her friend and teammate and she shouldn't be looking into her past. She might have a good reason for keeping secrets. But like Valerie had said before, she hated being kept in the dark and resolved to keep digging until she found the truth.

The command post was a large, three floored building. It acted as the operations center for soldiers abroad as well as the communications hub where intelligence on vampire threats was gathered. Day or night, the building was always a hive of activity. The walls were covered in monitors and other electronics that streamed a variety of information to the dozens of agents and officers in the building. She saw one of the monitors had a satellite image of a Russian town, and an officer was directing a team as they searched each house. Another screen had a collection of homicide reports on display, some of them extremely gruesome, and a team of analysts were sorting through them.

Valerie carefully navigated her way past them to the third floor where Colonel Parker's office was located. She stopped at the door and took a moment to compose herself. The Colonel wasn't known for his patience. Taking a deep breath, she knocked on the door.

"Enter" called the Colonel from within. Valerie stepped in and saluted.

Parker's office was modest for a man of his position. The room was simple, with only a filing cabinet to the side, a clock, a single window and a desk. Through the window Valerie could see the sun beginning to set. The office could have belonged to anybody and Valerie guessed that he didn't spend much time in here.

"At ease, corporal. What can I do for you?" The Colonel was going through some mission reports and only spared Valerie a glance as she entered.

"Well sir, it's about Seras…" This got Parker's interest, and drew him away from the reports.

"Yes, I was just reading your statement; a request for more information about Corporal Victoria." Valerie realized that the mission reports on Parker's desk were from The Wild Geese. "You'll need to be more specific."

Valerie wasn't sure how to broach the subject. Would Parker be upset that she'd been digging into Seras' past? Would he be impressed by her curiosity? She decided just to go for the direct approach.

"Why weren't we told that Seras was already a member of Hellsing six months prior to the Nazi attack?" Valerie had planned to say six months before she had joined, but the Nazi attack seemed more important. That was when everything had changed, for Britain, Hellsing and Valerie.

"What are you talking about?" Parker's ignorance was genuine.

_He doesn't know!_

So Valerie told him about how she had been investigating Seras' past. She described the Cheddar Village incident that Hastings had told her about and Seras' subsequent recruitment and how it had all happened a year ago. By the time she was finished, Valerie realized that all hint of disinterest had faded from Parker.

The Colonel pushed a button on the intercom on his desk. "Get me Walker." he growled.

A few moments later came Mac's reply. "Um, yes sir? How can I help sir?"

"Get me everything you can find on Hellsing's army roster from a year ago!" Valerie jumped as the Colonel practically yelled into the com.

_I guess he hates being left in the dark as much as I do._

"Um sir…" Mac sounded nervous. "Most of the records were destroyed during the attack six months ago."

"I don't care!" Parker seemed to be getting progressively angrier. "Just find everything you can and bring it to my office, now!"

The next several minutes were spent in absolute silence. Parker sat at his desk brooding and Valerie stood at attention not daring to make a sound. The tension in the air was palpable. For better or for worse, she'd stumbled onto some big secret. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Mac came bursting into the room carrying a single scrap of paper.

"Sir, this is all I could find sir." Mac looked exhausted; he'd no doubt been sprinting across the building to get here as quickly as possible. "It's the casualty report from the Valentine attack."

Valerie remembered hearing about the Valentine attack. A pair of vampires, The Valentine Brothers, had broken into Hellsing mansion with an army of ghouls and slaughtered almost all the soldiers. It had been a cautionary tale for the new military, to remind them to always be on guard.

"What does it say?"

"Of the 96 members of the Hellsing, 84 were killed." read Mac. "Of the 10 survivors, 8 were away at the time of the attack-"

"-Are any of them Seras Victoria?" interrupted Parker.

"Um, no sir." Mac continued reading, "The only other two being Sir Integra Hellsing and her butler, Walter C. Dornez." Mac looked up from the paper. "He's the one who wrote this."

It wasn't much, but it was better than nothing, and it still raised more questions…

_If Seras had been a member of Hellsing at the time of the attack, why wasn't she mentioned in the report?_

"Hold on a second…" Valerie turned to Mac "of the 96 members, there were 84 deaths and 10 survivors. What happened to the other 2?"

Mac went over the paper and just shrugged. Could it have been a mistake? How could they have neither died nor been survivors?

Suddenly Parker banged his fists on the table, sending sheets of paper flying across the room as he stood up. The Colonel's face was red with anger, his teeth were barred and his eyes flared. He looked as if he were in battle, ready to lunge at an opponent. Both Valerie and Mac instinctively took a step backwards.

"It's because they were already dead!" he spat out.

_What does he mean already dead?_

"Integra, you lying bitch!" Parker was trembling from his rage. "Alucard wasn't the only one!"

_Who's Alucard? What the hell is he talking about? _

Valerie had never seen Colonel Parker so angry before. He turned to Mac who seemed just as worried as she was. The Colonel finally managed to regain some semblance of control before speaking.

"Get the men together, I'm designating a new top level operation in Harborough. Wheels up in one hour."

"Yes sir!" Mac saluted, he had no idea what was going on but was smart enough not to show it. "Who will we be taking, sir?"

Parker looked straight at Valerie. His eyes reflected his barely controlled anger. She still had no idea what had made the Colonel so upset.

"Everybody."


	11. Slaughter

Chapter 11 - Slaughter

There was blood everywhere. It covered her uniform, hands, face and weapons. It wasn't just the blood of her enemies either. Seras winced from dozens of cuts and injuries she'd sustained. She was tired. So tired. She struggled to hold up the guns that had felt so light mere hours earlier. She could feel her movements become sluggish. The endless fighting in this underground maze had taken its toll.

But there was no time to rest as another vampire and his ghouls rounded the corner, intent on slaying the interlopers.

"Please, Sir Integra!" Seras cried out again as she fired the massive guns. "Release the restraints!"

Her cries fell on deaf ears. Integra was just as exhausted as she was. Fresh beads of sweat ran down her face and her suit was also covered in blood. Her pistol had run out of ammo long ago, and she cut down the ghouls one by one with a razor sharp sword.

The vampire was the larger threat though, and he went straight for Seras. Dodging her hail of bullets, he was on her in seconds, knocking her weapons to the ground. The two became locked, wrestling on the ground as they rolled across the stone floor. The two supernatural creatures were caught in a test of strength, to fail would mean death. The vampire leaned in closer, his eyes wide with bloodlust and his fetid breath coursing over Seras' face. His tongue was split giving him a reptilian hiss.

"When I show your corpse to the othersssss" hissed the vampire, "even Seriphus will have to acknowledge my powersssss."

Seras had no idea what the hissing vampire was talking about, but as he wasted time talking, she managed to get the upper hand and pin him to the ground. The vampire roared and struggled, but Seras didn't let up. She grabbed onto his arm and pulled with all her strength. She could feel the sinews of his shoulder snapping as the fibers split. Soon, the flesh gave way and Seras ripped it clean off.

As the vampire cried out in pain, blood gushing from his wound, Seras crawled over to where her weapons had dropped. In one fluid motion she picked them up, turned and fired on the injured vampire. His body shook, as if possessed, as dozens of rounds tore through his body. Finally, as he grew still, Seras stopped and allowed herself to collapse to the ground, exhausted.

Soon she was roused by Sir Integra, who seemed equally as tired. But despite her exhaustion, she never showed anything less than unwavering determination.

"Please, Sir Integra," she begged again. "Release the restraints."

With her full powers, Seras could kill all the vampires here with ease, just as she had the Nazis. Why wouldn't Integra let her?

"You don't need to release your restraints to kill this scum." Integra offered no more explanation before moving on.

Seras would probably have been angry if she wasn't so tired. She took a look at the bullet-riddled corpse of the hissing vampire.

_I could drink his blood. Regain some of my strength…_

She shook her head. When you drank the blood of the recently dead, you took a part of them into you. Their souls became mingled with your own. True, she would grow more powerful and it would heal her wounds, but she didn't want any part of these monsters inside of her. She turned away from the vampire and followed after her master.

How many vampires had they killed? How many more were there? The past hours had become a blur to Seras. Some of the vampires and ghouls carried weapons; crude knives and guns that looked like they belonged in a museum. The vampires seemed disorganized, refusing to work together so they could claim all the glory for the kill. Their arrogance made it possible for Seras and Integra to fight their way deeper into the lair until they finally came to a massive wooden gate.

The two ghouls guarding the entrance were quickly dispatched with two swipes of Integra's sword. But as the pair neared the gate Seras hesitated.

_Something's wrong…_

It was some sort of instinct, some sort of hidden nature that told her not to walk through that door. Integra noticed Seras' reluctance.

"What do you see?"

Seras closed her eyes and focused. She imagined a third eye, just as Alucard had taught her, and with it she could see into the next room. It was a large chamber. The largest Seras had seen so far. A single stone slab covered in dried blood lay in the center, chains hung loosely from the side. She shivered as she pondered the fate of the slab's former occupant. Moving on, Seras continued to examine the room.

_It's a trap!_

There were several vampires and swarms of ghouls hiding in the shadows, waiting to attack as soon as Seras and Integra entered the room. It seemed that this group had put aside their individual ambitions in order to defeat their common enemy. The moment the wooden gate opened, they would strike. Seras shared what she'd learned with Integra.

"This changes nothing." Integra was unfazed. "Now that we know they're waiting for us, we can catch them by surprise."

"But Sir Inte-" Seras was stopped by a single icy glare from her master.

"…Yes ma'am…"

Seras considered the situation. If they had walked into the trap, then they would have been slaughtered. Though, as Integra had pointed out they had the element of surprise. But Seras was so weak. If they had fought these vampires when they first entered the Catacombs then there wouldn't be a problem. But now…

_No! I can do this._

Seras lifted her massive machine guns and fired them _through_ the wooden door. Many of the unsuspecting vampires were killed immediately as the silver cored bullets pierced their hearts. Scores of ghouls were mowed down by a hail of gunfire as Seras charged into the chamber.

It was complete chaos. The vampires hadn't anticipated this kind of attack and any semblance of organization they had was destroyed. Some turned to run behind cover for fear of another volley, others tried to rally their undead minions and many of them lay on the ground dead or dying, while their minions tripped over each other in a feeble attempt to attack. Seras glanced over as Integra charged into a horde of ghouls. Then, suddenly, a group of vampires who'd been fast enough to escape injury leaped at her from the shadows.

It happened so fast and before Seras could react they were on her. The vampires tore at her like wild beasts. She screamed and struggled as their claws ripped through her skin, spilling her blood across the floor. The frenzied attack was so intense that Seras couldn't even fight back. She fired her guns blindly in a desperate attempt to ward off her attackers but it only bought her a moment of reprieve before the vampires took the weapons from her and ripped them to pieces.

Seras struggled to stand as the vampires returned to finish her off, but before they could reach her something happened…

_Power._

Seras could feel her strength returning. More than that; she could feel her powers, long dormant, resurfacing. The vampires sensed it as well and hesitated.

_So much power._

She could feel her body warping. Cuts and wounds sealed themselves, her strength and senses felt enhanced beyond that of any normal vampire, and her arm…

The vampires watched in horror as the flesh on Seras' left arm melted and rolled off revealing an arm made of pure shadows. Her transformation even seemed to give pause to the mindless ghouls.

The restraints had been lifted, and after so long, Seras was at the height of her power once again. She laughed.

_I'd forgotten how good this felt._

Her laughter grew and seemed to bridge on the edge of insanity. She couldn't help it. This feeling was euphoric! Seras had spent so much time worrying about when to feed and avoiding the sun, but none of that mattered now. These vampires…no…these gnats couldn't hope to stand against her.

Her attack was sudden and merciless. In the blink of an eye, all the remaining ghouls seemed to explode as Seras ripped them to shreds. She savored the vampires fear as they turned to run. She even let them get close to the door before she reached out with her shadow and ripped out their hearts.

One of the vampires tried to attack. His eyes were wide with fright as he desperately slashed at Seras. She effortlessly sliced his arm off, then the other. She took her time as she dismembered the vampire piece by piece until finally granting him the mercy of death.

_This is fun!_

When Seras had fought the Nazis, she had been fueled by grief and rage over the death of her friends. But now she relished in the slaughter. She especially enjoyed letting her prey think they were safe; giving them a small glimmer of hope as they neared the exit, or hid in the shadows before she would appear and kill them.

There were also some who were too wounded to run. They desperately tried to crawl away from Seras or pretended to be dead. Either way, Seras would casually walk up to them, and slowly lean down to their faces before ripping out their hearts. The last things they would see were Seras' cold, merciless, red eyes.

They deserved it too. There were countless ghouls in this room alone; men and women whose lives had been stripped away cruelly by the vampires. Honestly though, Seras didn't care about that right now. She was killing them because she could and because it was fun.

Too soon, Seras' dance of death had killed most of the vampires. There was just one left; a vampire woman hiding in the corner.

"Please…no" begged the woman as Seras slowly walked over. The nightmarish visage of the vampire was now a mask of terror.

"Please…no" mocked Seras, a twisted grin on her face. Something made the woman looked oddly human as she huddled in the corner.

_It's the fear. Such a human thing._

Seras picked up the woman by the throat and held her above the ground. The grin on her face changed into a demented smile as she contemplated how best to savor this final kill.

_I'll start with the arms._

She used her shadow to cut through the woman's flesh like butter. The toes went next, then the feet. The sound of bones breaking mingled with her cries of pain was music to Seras. Sinews of muscle and flesh fell to the ground at her feet. She was enthralled by the sight of the woman's blood flowing down her broken body. It was like a game. How much pain could Seras inflict before this pathetic excuse for a vampire died?

* * *

AN: For those of you waiting for there to be some action, I can tell you now that this is when everything I've been trying to set up starts to unfold. Also, in case it wasn't clear (although I'm sure you all caught it), that hissing vampire that Seras fought _was_ somebody you know.

I also have some bad news: Since I'll be returning to school soon, I doubt I'll have much time to work on writing this story, so I will continue to release the chapters I've written up until the end of what will be referred to as the "Harborough incident". That means there will be about 10 more chapters to go and I won't leave you hanging in the middle of the action. I have no intention of abandoning this story, but it could be a while before I return to finish writing.

Thank you so much for all the reviews. I really appreciate your feedback. Don't feel hesitant to tell me you dislike something that I've done or if you want me to expand on a particular character/event. Now that the action has started, I sometimes feel like my writing is rushed but I'm not sure what proper pacing is for a fanfiction versus other stories, so tell me what you think.

There's still a lot of the story left unpublished and nothing is final until posted, so I can still change events or the direction of the story if I feel that's where people want it to go.

**To respond to some comments:**

**Heidilynn08**- For you and everyone else who's wondering what happened to Newt, I'm sorry to say it was pretty obvious that she died.

...

Just kidding, you'll see her in the next chapter!

**Bloody-Asphode11** - I'm a huge fan of Aliens and I'm glad you liked the reference. I chose Newt's name because I wanted her loss of identity to be an important example of how she's lost touch with her past and morals. I don't plan on having the interactions between Newt and Seras being similar to the interactions between Newt and Ripley in aliens but those two characters are going to be influencing each other a lot.

**AlsoSprachOdin** - Thank you for your really long and informative review! I'm sorry that you don't like how I introduced Valerie. I tried to make her a character that people either love or hate. I'm not that crazy about how I introduced Valerie's character either and I agree it was pretty cliche, but a lot of the original characters are cliche from the start, and they change throughout the story. Also, I'm not so much trying to make men look like pigs as to play up the fact that Valerie is really _really_ hot. The other critique you gave was really helpful. And yes, Seriphus' name was based off of Sephiroth.

**Arcadia Laufeyson** - I'm sorry but I've been trying to keep my fanfiction as close to the storyline to the anime as possible so Alucard won't be showing up. That isn't to say he won't have influence at some point in the story. Seras has been able to blend into Hellsing as a human for a long time, that means that she doesn't have the bite mark on her neck yet. She also isn't convinced that Alucard is going to return, yet once the time gap is over these things have changed. I have plans for that in my story.

**Ludifer** - I'm so glad that you like my fanfiction. It was actually "New master, New servant" that got me interested in fanfiction and inspired me to write this story!


	12. The Hand of Death

Chapter 12 – The Hand of Death

_I am dying…_

That cold realization hurt Darius more than all the silver in the world ever could. Death and the fear of death were concepts that he had forgotten decades ago. He was under no illusion that when he died there would be a paradise waiting for him. It felt as though a great hand had was reaching out to grip his soul and pull him down to burn in the fiery pits of hell for eternity.

_All because of that Hellsing girl…_

Who was she? A vampire who hunts her own kind? The prisoner had never mentioned anything about Hellsing using vampires. Darius had underestimated her and for his arrogance she had ripped off his arm and shot him with silver bullets.

_That wretched girl…_

Darius tried to growl, but all that came out of his malformed, bullet-ridden throat was a weak gurgle. The pain was unbearable. The silver lodged throughout his body burned like acid. One eye had been torn off and his limbs were attached by the thinnest sinews of flesh. He hopelessly watched as precious lifeblood flowed out of the stump where his arm had been. That female vampire may not have pierced his heart, but all that meant was that he wouldn't die quickly.

_I am dying…_

How much time was left? Hours? Minutes? Seconds? The hand of death was getting closer. Darius could already feel his mind darkening and his limbs growing heavier. He could not count on the other Masters for help. In the Catacombs those who were weak and broken were abandoned.

_Blood. I need blood…_

It was fear that drove him. The gut-wrenching fear of his own mortality allowed him to find the will to move. Darius managed to force his broken form to stand. To put one foot in front of the other. The floor was soaked in blood, but it was all his own. He needed human blood. _Virgin _blood.

_Newt…_

Could the human girl still be alive? No. It had been almost a day since Darius had sealed her in with the ghouls. But her corpse…that fleshy blood bag could still be intact. Hope renewed, Darius limped towards the hidden room.

It wasn't far from him, but every step wracked his body with new pain. A journey that would've taken no more than a minute felt like an eternity. Smears of blood adorned the wall that he used to support his weight. Finally, as Darius managed to shamble to the hidden passage that led to the room, his broken jaw contorted into a parody of a smile. There was hope.

He feebly traced the wall with his remaining arm; his broken fingers almost missing the hidden switch. Darius winced as he forced his weight down to trigger the mechanism. He could hear stones rumbling and gears turning as the wall receded to reveal its hidden room. Darius almost collapsed as he stepped into the dark room. Even as he fought at the edge of death, the darkness could keep no secrets from him and he saw the room clearly through his single eye.

_The ghouls…_

There had been dozens of ghouls here when Newt had been sealed here. All of the children since before Darius had become a Master. He never understood why Seriphus would abduct the children. Those weak-willed, feeble humans never lasted. Even as undead, Seriphus wanted them hidden from his sight, locked in this room beyond prying eyes.

Now though, many of the children were truly dead. Their decaying bodies lay collapsed upon the ground as if their un-life had been ended abruptly and without warning. Only eight of the ghouls remained, still aimlessly wandering the room. Darius watched as one of those ghouls suddenly stopped, fell to the ground and died.

_What!?…_

Darius realized that these ghouls were being called back to death as the vampires who had turned them were killed. Had that Hellsing vampire killed this many of The Masters all by herself? True, she had been powerful… but to achieve this…

Two more ghouls fell to the ground.

Time was short. Darius saw Newt's corpse sprawled face down in the corner of the room. It was in such good condition! There would be more than enough blood left for him to regenerate his body. He became too excited and tried to run to her body. In his haste, Darius snapped the ravaged bones in his right leg under his own weight.

A painful cry escaped him as his body fell to the floor mere feet from the girl. Once again, he could feel the invisible hand closing in around him.

_Not when I'm so close!_

He used his only arm to drag himself closer to the girl. Slowly, he managed to reach out and grab her leg intent on pulling her to him.

Suddenly, Darius felt a sharp, blinding pain in his hand. He forced his head up and saw that a broken bone, sharp as a knife, lay impaled through it. Newt stood before him, hand on the makeshift weapon.

"How?" Was all Darius could force out. It sounded more like a jumble of sounds through his torn throat. If Newt understood then she gave no sign of it.

"Darius…" Newt seemed half-alive herself. She was deathly pale and covered in scratches. It seemed she was standing only by a sheer force of will. Her tired eyes suddenly widened as realization dawned on her. She may not have known what happened to Darius but it was clear to both of them that he was now at her mercy.

"You need my blood to survive." She stated matter-of-factly. The girl was quick. Darius could see why Seriphus had taken a liking to her. She took a moment to contemplate something, and then continued speaking in the same flat tone. "I'd be happy to give you some…for a price."

What was Newt playing at? What could that girl possibly want from Darius? The only thing he wanted to give her right now was a slow, painful death.

"What?" Again, the word was barely comprehensible coming out of Darius' mouth. He wasn't sure whether Newt could actually tell what he had said, or if she just assumed it.

"I want you to beg." Her broken lips parted in a weak smile. "I want you to call me Master…"

_Go to hell you miserable meat bag!_

But as he felt the hand of death encompass him even more, Darius had to reconsider. As much as it pained him to admit it, this girl was his only chance to survive. His pride had allowed the vampire girl to rip off his arm; he wouldn't let pride be his downfall again. Besides, as soon as he healed, he would tear Newt's head off and drain every drop from her body. With no option left, Darius finally spat out the words Newt wanted to hear.

"Please…"

_She'll pay dearly for this!_

"…Master…"

Newt laughed. It sounded so innocent and pure coming from the twelve year old girl, but Darius knew the laughter was at his pain. She was mocking him, and he could do nothing to stop it. He lay on the ground, his life measured in seconds and the girl just kept laughing. Darius became blinded by rage. He willed his arm to move so he could rip Newt apart, but it remained motionless. Every ounce of energy left to him was gone.

Finally she stopped. The laughter seemed to have exhausted her even more, but despite the weakness in her body, her eyes reflected only a sense of triumph. Up until now, the girl had sounded emotionless, as if in shock. But as she kneeled down and whispered into his ear, her voice was laced with a sinister pleasure…

"No."

Darius could only watch in anger as Newt turned to leave. She was going to leave him here to die; just as Darius had left her not long ago. But while Darius' wrecked body may not obey his mind, there were others that would. He reached out with his consciousness to the few remaining ghouls in the room. Their bodies grew rigid as he delved into their tormented souls.

Slowly, Darius cut the connections each ghoul had to their vampire masters and joined their essences with his own. It was easy since those vampires had long forgotten about these ghouls. Soon they became attached to him, their bodies acting as extensions of his own.

Darius would have scowled if he could. These child sized ghouls were weak and decrepit after decades of rotting. Truly, they were as useless as they had been in life. Still, the bones in their hands had been reduced to sharp spikes, their teeth could tear flesh and they could still move; something which Darius could not. They would enact his vengeance on Newt, and bring her blood to him.

Newt was completely oblivious to the ghouls as she slowly walked to leave the room. They came out of the shadows closing in behind her, entirely silent. All it would take was a single bite or a strike and then they would tear her limb from limb. Darius watched through his single eye in anticipation as one of the ghouls reached out for Newt. The girl was defenseless and weak. She wouldn't stand a chance.

But just as the ghoul's claw like hand came within inches of Newt it stopped. Darius felt a consciousness far more powerful than his own seize control of the ghouls.

_Seriphus..._

Why was Seriphus stopping the ghouls? Why wouldn't he keep Darius from saving himself? Darius could only watch in horror as Newt reached the exit and began searching for the switch to lock Darius in.

_Why, Seriphus?_

To his surprise, the voice of his master filled his mind; deep, cold and calculating.

_"You have failed, Darius. I will not allow you to take that girl from me simply to save your pathetic life."_

The walls began to rumble and shake once again as they came to a close. Newt had found the switch. She gave Darius one last bitter smile as the walls came slamming shut, sealing him in. Now the ghouls turned, driven by their new master, to feast on Darius.

_"Death is the only reward you deserve."_

Darius faced death in silence. He lay motionless on the ground as the ghouls shambled towards his form. He found a sort of serenity as he accepted the inevitable. In his mind, there was only one thing he could think of.

_What does Seriphus want with that girl?_

By the time the ghouls reached him, Darius was already dead.


	13. Preparations

Chapter 13 - Preparations

"-And we will send each and every one of those bastards back to the pit they crawled out of!"

"Hoo-rah!"

The cheers of his squad echoed in their small tent. Their squad leader, Sergeant Crosby had kept them cooped up in here for what felt like ages, to listen to a briefing that somehow didn't seem to actually provide any information.

It was tough to tell how old Crosby was. The Sergeant looked strong and youthful except for his greying hair. He certainly didn't act like an experienced veteran, always mouthing off about his achievements as if he were talking to a bunch of fresh recruits.

Mackenzie held back a groan of annoyance. Crosby was an overenthusiastic jarhead who only knew how to shoot and follow orders. Tactics, strategy and improvising were always left to Mac. The rest of squad 4, The Legionnaires, knew it as well.

_Not that it helps me in the end._

By covering for Crosby's incompetence, Mac had killed his own military career. He was so valuable to Crosby that the squad leader made sure Mac would be stuck as a private and always working for him. It was hardly the fate Mac had imagined when he had joined the military just three years ago.

"We're going to show those vampires what happens when they mess with Hellsing!" Crosby puffed out his chest. He was probably trying to look intimidating or inspirational but Mac thought he just looked silly. "Any questions?"

"Sir," Adam stepped forward "What's so special about those lights we have set up outside?"

"I uh…" Crosby hesitated "lights?" He hadn't actually expected to answer any questions. Mac guessed the squad leader had spent the past hour coming up with that inspirational-and useless-briefing.

"Those lights are part of our new anti-vampire arsenal." Cut in Mac. "They use focused ultraviolet lights to imitate the effect of the sun."

Their squad leader flushed in embarrassment. Mac had once again exposed his ineptitude.

"uh, private Walker!" Stammered Crosby. "Go check with the Colonel and make sure that...that everything is going smoothly."

"Yes, sir!" Mac saluted and eagerly left the tent.

_How did Crosby ever get into Hellsing? Hell, how did he even become a Sergeant?_

Mac didn't head to the Colonel's command tent; he just wandered the camp that had been set up outside of the vampire lair. If anything changed he would be one of the first people Parker called on. Just like Crosby, Parker found Mac's talents invaluable, even if neither of them showed it.

_Appreciation is overrated. It's good enough to know that I'm making a difference and saving lives._

He hadn't joined the military in a quest for personal glory. Mac had exceled back in school, graduating top of his class. Orphaned from a young age, he had no ties to home, or anybody to hold him back. Mac could have done anything, but instead he joined the military.

Some might have questioned his choice of career, but to Mac it was a no brainer. He never regretted it either. Being a part of the army made him feel like he was part of something greater, like he was making a difference. Someone in Hellsing must have recognized his value and transferred him, and now Mac was saving lives on a regular basis.

Still, it seemed like Adam and James, the two other members of his squad, were the only ones who even acknowledged Mac. Everyone else just seemed to enjoy yelling at the overqualified private.

Mac shook his head trying to dismiss the cynical thoughts. He kept wandering the camp, watching as gun emplacements were set-up and squads prepared to enter the vampire lair. Colonel Parker hadn't been able to bring all of Hellsing here, but he had definitely brought everyone he could get his hands on immediately. They weren't the only ones here either. They'd found an abandoned car, registered to Hellsing, parked outside the entrance. The weird thing was, after inspecting the vehicle Parker had it destroyed before anybody else could get a good look at it.

_Something's going on…_

Mac shook himself out of his pointless musing. Colonel Parker would let everyone know what was happening when the time was right. He looked around and realized that he'd wandered near the tent of another squad. Squad 13, The Wild Geese.

_Valerie and Seras' squad._

Mac cringed as he remembered Valerie's interrogation. She had been ready to come to blows to figure out if he was hiding anything. Why had the medic been so interested in where Seras had gone?

_I guess if Sir Integra called on someone from The Legionnaires, I'd be just as curious._

Seras didn't seem like the kind to be harboring any sort of secret. True, she was a bit of an introvert, preferring to stay inside her bunk rather than chat with other soldiers, but she was still friendly. Mac realized that she was probably the only superior officer who treated him with any sort of respect. What did Colonel Parker mean when he said that she was already dead?

_I probably misheard him._

He was surprised to find himself dearly hoping that this was all a misunderstanding. Seras never caused any trouble and she helped a lot of people, but Parker was acting as if she'd killed his own mother.

"I just feel responsible, y'know?"

Mac paused. Valerie was talking to someone inside the tent. For once her voice wasn't brimming with anger, but instead sounded a bit downcast. Mac knew he shouldn't be listening in, but curiosity got the better of him. He silently creeped closer, in an attempt to pick up more.

"Don't go blaming yourself, Doc." That deep, gruff voice could only be Corporal Hayes, or Brock as his team called him. "Ain't anybody who could've seen this comin'."

"I know that!" Valerie's voice was once again the intimidating speech that Mac was accustomed to. "It's just that…we're out here because of something I said. When I spoke with Parker it sounded like he was ready to kill Seras and I still don't understand why."

There was a pause. Mac leaned in closer.

"It all has something to do with her past." Valerie finally continued speaking. "How did you find out she was in the Cheddar police force?"

It was a good question. Especially considering Mac had done his own investigation. Seras' file clearly stated she'd been recruited from a police force, but it had never specified from where.

"Heard it somewhere, I guess"

Mac wished he could join in the conversation and press Brock for details, but Valerie seemed satisfied with the corporal's answer.

"I just hope nobody dies because we came here."

Mac jumped at Brock's sudden laughter.

"Comes with the job, Doc. We're just killin' time until time kills us. Sides, dyin' ain't all that bad. We're doin' God's mission, remember? Says right here on the uniform. Death just means we get an express ticket to heaven."

Bleak as his statement was, it sounded like Valerie was convinced.

"Ya, I guess you're right. You know, I didn't peg you as the religious type. You think about the afterlife often?"

For a moment Mac didn't recognize Brock's voice. The big man was usually jovial with a big grin on his face, but now there wasn't a dash of humor in his voice.

"Not a day goes by that I don't, Doc. Not a day goes by."

Something about the way Brock spoke sent shivers down Mackenzie's spine.

* * *

AN: I feel like this chapter was a bit short and uneventful, but I ended up adding it because I wanted to have some character development for Mackenzie. Let me know what you think and I should be uploading the next, far more exciting chapter, in the next few days


	14. Guilt

Chapter 14 – Guilt

Something was wrong.

It was this nagging feeling inside of Seras, as if there was something important she had forgotten. She paused and took a moment to contemplate.

_All the ghouls are dead…almost all the vampires…What am I missing?_

Her thoughts were interrupted by the annoying whimpers of the mutilated vampire at her feet. In one fluid motion Seras sliced her in half to stop the noise. She immediately regretted it. That woman had been the last vampire left and Seras had been experimenting with different types of torture. It was like art; so many new methods to discover and the only limit was Seras' creativity.

She irritably scanned the room hoping to find another victim. There was no such luck. Every person in the room was already dead except Seras.

_Well, I'm dead too, come to think of it._

She smiled at her own joke. A pity there wasn't someone here she could tell it to. Again that nagging feeling returned. It wasn't until Seras picked up the scent of virgin blood that she remembered.

_Integra!_

Thoughts of torture and bloodlust quickly faded to be replaced with compassion and concern for her master. Moreover, the memories of where she was and why she was here returned. It was as if Seras had been trapped in a dream of slaughter and was only now returning to reality. She looked around the room, shocked at the carnage she had wrought, and finally saw Integra's limp form on the ground.

Seras quickly ran to her master's side. Integra lay on the ground motionless, a pool of her own blood forming around her.

"Integra!"

There was no response. Blood continued to pour out of a wound in Integra's chest. Seras willed her shadowy arm to take on its human shape once again so she could try and stem the flow of blood. But even as she placed her hands on the wound, she knew it was hopeless. Integra was dying and there was nothing she could do to stop it.

How had Integra been injured? There were no ghouls or vampires near her, and the injury didn't look like it was inflicted by claws or teeth. Seras winced as she felt a sting of pain in her hands. Her eyes widened as she realized what this meant.

_Oh God._

It couldn't be. Seras carefully dug her hand into the wound, dreading what it might reveal.

_Oh God please no! Oh God._

Her worst fears were confirmed as she pulled out a silver-cored bullet from Integra. It burned in her hand, but with her restraints released, not even blessed silver could truly hurt her. What hurt her infinitely more was that it meant she'd been responsible for Integra's injury.

Seras put the pieces together in her mind. As the group of vampires had overwhelmed her, Integra must have been coming to save her. Instead, she'd been shot when Seras wildly fired her weapons. Integra was dying because of Seras.

She fought down a wave of panic. She was brought back to the Hellsing mansion attack, as Pip died trying to save her. She had hopelessly held him in her arms as his life ebbed away. Now the same was happening with Integra.

_I'm not going to let her die as well!_

There could be medical supplies back in the car! Without a second thought Seras gingerly picked up Integra and sprinted for the exit. This entire underground lair looked the same; with winding corridors that could lead in wildly different paths. Seras didn't have the luxury of knowing where each turn could lead her. Instead, she merely followed the corpse-ridden trail left by her previous battles.

Seras was a blur as she dashed through these macabre landmarks at an inhuman speed. Yet for all the distance she covered, Integra's life was still fading away. She finally managed to reach the tunnel leading to the surface. The rocky incline was all that was keeping Seras from the surface.

She carefully climbed the rocks and earth towards the exit. Finally, she could see the light at the end of the tunnel.

_The light?_

That wasn't right. Streams of light flowed into the tunnel from the surface. Stronger than the sun, yet it shouldn't be morning for a few more hours. Seras could feel Integra's pulse weaken. There was no time to hesitate. Strange light or not, Seras leaped out of the tunnel.

She was immediately assaulted by a cacophony of noises. She heard weapon's safeties being unlocked, the buzz of helicopters and the shouts of men in alarm at her arrival. All she could rely on was sound. Seras felt as if the sun itself stood in front of her, even with her full vampiric powers she had to avert her eyes. The light was far more than an irritant, and Seras had no doubt that a lesser vampire would be writhing in pain right now.

"Hold your fire!" A voice rang out from the chaos.

Colonel Parker stepped out of the light, flanked by two soldiers, weapons trained on Seras. When the soldiers recognized a fellow Hellsing soldier, they relaxed. One of the men spoke into his radio and the lights dimmed.

The clearing in the canyon had been transformed into a military camp. There must have been at least a dozen squads there. Some were unpacking equipment, setting up a perimeter or engaged in some other military task while a few paused to watch the activity at the tunnel entrance. Two helicopters were landed as well, unloading additional soldiers and equipment. There was even a tank; Seras hadn't even known Hellsing had one. This was undoubtedly the largest military operation she'd ever seen.

The only people who seemed to notice her arrival were the Colonel and his escorts. It was unusual for Parker to be out in the field, especially near an active vampire lair. It was almost as if he'd been waiting just for Seras.

She remembered to avert her eyes from the Colonel. Form had no meaning to a true vampire and while her body resembled that of a human, she could do nothing about her eyes which were orbs of blood. One look at them and her true nature would be recognized.

"Corporal Victoria" The Colonel's uniform seemed brand new and spotless while Seras was covered in blood and dirt. "I thought I might fi-"

"Integra's hurt!" Parker seemed annoyed at the interruption, but when he saw Integra in Seras' arms he immediately understood the urgency of the situation.

"We need a medic here now!" he shouted into his radio. "Tell me what the hell happened?"

Seras paused. What would she tell the Colonel? She considered lying but realized that there was no explanation she could give that would satisfy him. How could she explain walking out of a vampire lair, her uniform soaked in blood, carrying Integra Hellsing?

"I…I can't sir…"

"Of course you can't." He didn't sound surprised. The expression on Parker's face was one of disappointment, as if Parker had expected the worst and gotten as much, but Seras thought she saw something more in there. Was it contempt?

_Just what is Hellsing doing here?_

Integra would have known what to do. She would have known what to say but Integra was cradled in Seras arms as helpless as a newborn child.

Just then the medic arrived.

"Sir, what's going…" Valerie's voice faded as she spotted Seras. Her eyes widened as she saw all the blood. "Seras? Jesus Christ, are you alright?"

"I'm fine! Sir Integra needs help!"

It felt like everyone was moving in slow motion. Couldn't they see every second mattered? Valerie's eyes only widened more as she spotted Sir Integra in Seras' arms. She was finally face to face with the infamous leader of the Hellsing Organization, although not in a way she had ever expected.

_"What's she doing here?"_ Seras jumped at the voice in her head. It took her a moment to realize she'd read Valerie's thoughts. That was new. Since Integra had been injured, it was as if the restrictions of Seras' powers were being lifted.

Valerie's moment of confusion passed and she was back to being the professional medic. She instructed Seras to place Integra on the ground and began patching up the wound. Seras watched in a mix of fear and dread as Valerie gave her assessment.

"She's lost a lot of blood. I don't know if I can save her…"

_No!_

Seras fell to her knees; she knelt over Integra, tears flooding in her eyes. She couldn't bear the thought of losing Integra, not when so many others had died. Even worse, was the thought that Integra's death would be because of Seras.

"I'm sorry…I'm so sorry" Seras desperately watched Integra's face. Hoping for some sign of life, but it was as if her master was asleep.

_"What the fuck?" _Another stray thought from Valerie. Seras looked up and met Valerie's gaze.

She was transfixed by Seras' eyes. They were no longer the innocent blue eyes that Valerie was used to, but were the crimson globes of a vampire. Seras didn't even care. So what if Valerie could see her vampiric eyes? So what if she saw that Seras' tears were made of blood? All that mattered was Integra.

"Please, help her" Seras begged.

Valerie froze; her mind racing. Seras could sense her confusion, and her suspicions, but Valerie was too good of a soldier to let that keep her from working. She returned to the task at hand, focusing single-mindedly on saving Integra.

Her deft hands quickly assessed the injury without causing further damage. She ignored the blood seeping into her uniform and the noise of the camp. It was as if Valerie were in another world. It was just her and the patient.

"It looks like a single bullet wound to the chest. I'll patch it up as best as I can but I don't know if she'll make it."

Parker's didn't even seem to flinch at the news. His face remained carved in a scowl as he towered over the three of them. Seras only become more overcome with emotion. It really was her fault. It really had been because of her.

_A single bullet from my own gun!_

Seras couldn't take the guilt. She hid her face in her hands and silently sobbed.

"This is all my fault…"

The world seemed to fade away, leaving Seras alone with her sorrow. She was going to lose Integra, just like how she'd lost Alucard and Walter and Pip and her friends on the police force and the former soldiers at Hellsing and…and…

_My parents…_

Suddenly she was pulled back to reality. Seras felt something metal placed on the back of her head. It took her a moment to realize it was the barrel of a revolver. Behind her, she could hear Colonel Parker's voice.

"I know."

And then he shot her.

* * *

AN: And that's the end of the story!

Nah, just kidding. There's still a lot more I'll upload before I take a break from the story. Like always, I appreciate all comments, and if there are any frequently stated remarks, or direct questions I'll try and respond when I upload the next chapter.


	15. Ambition

Chapter 15 – Ambition

"Cowards! All of you are nothing but weak, sniveling cowards!"

Seriphus smashed a vase against the wall. It was a centuries old relic, a piece from his own collection but in his rage he didn't even care. In his personal chamber were the last of the Masters, just over a dozen. These deadly creatures of the night cringed in fear under Seriphus' wrath. This rabble had survived the vampire girl's attack not because they were powerful, but because they had avoided her all together.

_This band of vampires is worthless to me._

Once, in centuries past, a vampire had ruled over mortal lands with an iron fist. His legend had been written in the blood of a thousand innocents. It was said his power could make the very earth shake with his presence; that he was invincible, indestructible and unstoppable.

_Oceans of blood. They say he drifted through oceans of blood._

Seriphus sighed. That was his ambition. The Masters were meant to be masters of everything. But one can grow lazy in immortality. Death is such strong motivation, that final end that is comes closer with each passing moment. Without it, Seriphus had grown complacent.

He eyed the pathetic crowd gathered in his room. They all cowered silently as he brooded.

He had realized this decades ago of course. It seemed that simply turning a mortal into a vampire doesn't make them true soldiers of darkness. They squandered the gifts he gave them by gorging on blood and wasting away underground like animals. That's why he had begun taking the children, to cultivate their strength from a young age.

"The humans will no doubt enter the Catacombs at any moment." He spoke in whispers, yet his voice echoed across the room. "If you wish to redeem yourselves then I suggest you slaughter as many as you can."

"But mas-" The underling froze at a hidden gesture from Seriphus. Every Master was bound to his will. He had turned the first of the Masters, and they had turned more and so on and so forth. But in the end, they could all trace their bloodline to him. There was always the risk that a vampire would grow ambitious and try to kill Seriphus, drink his blood in order to achieve power and freedom, but such a thing had never happened. It was disappointing really. They all lacked that ambition and drive, content to simply remain slaves to Seriphus' will.

He was brought back to reality by the whimpering of the underling, still frozen where he stood. Seriphus briefly considered making an example of this weakling who would dare question him, but such satisfactions couldn't be indulged.

_They'll all die one way or another._

The truth was that the lives of these vampires no longer mattered to Seriphus. He had watched in disappointment as they had amounted to nothing. They did not grow in power, or seek to establish any greater dominion but only bickered and fought amongst each other.

Still, their deaths could serve to buy him time to achieve his true goal. In his decades spent waiting, there had been more children in the Catacombs then he could count. However each failure only added to his shame and he found that he couldn't even stand seeing their withered husks wandering the halls. That had all changed just a few days ago. Seriphus had finally found the one; a child who had been forcibly thrust into a world of unimaginable horrors only to survive and become a stronger creature as a result. This child had the potential to be more powerful than all the Masters combined; to be his champion as he embarked on his quest for power.

He gestured for two of his servants.

"I need you to find a girl."


	16. Forever Changed

Chapter 16 – Forever Changed

_He shot me…_

Seras could feel the silver lodged in her brain as she collapsed to the ground by Integra's side. A high caliber, pure silver, blessed round. Everything sounded muffled, as if Seras were underwater. In her peripheral vision she could see Valerie on her feet, screaming at the Colonel. The Colonel's escorts looked at each other uneasily.

A silver round to the head would kill any other vampire, but not Seras; at least not immediately. She was a Draculina and Alucard's blood flowed through her. But with most of her power still sealed, she struggled to stay conscious.

_Don't close your eyes…Whatever you do, don't close your eyes…_

That's what she kept thinking to herself. The rest of her body was numb, unable to move and all of her will was focused on just keeping her eyelids from closing. Seras knew once that happened, she may never open them again.

"What the fuck was that! You killed her you bastard!" Seras had no doubt that Valerie would have pulled out a gun if she had been armed.

The Colonel was surprisingly calm. He still held the smoking revolver in his hand. He turned his head to Valerie, his face a perfect, stoic mask as he spoke calmly to the medic.

"How's Sir Integra?"

"I…shit" Valerie had forgotten about Integra in all the commotion. She quickly turned around and knelt back to Sir Integra, giving Seras' limp form a sorrowful glance. Seras could sense Valerie's anger and confusion. It was all happening faster than the medic could process. First Seras is alive, then she needs to save Sir Integra, then the Colonel shot Seras! It was all too much, too quickly.

"Sir, we heard gunfire" A voice from Parker's radio chimed in, "Do you need back up?"

"Negative, soldier" Parker responded calmly as he watched Valerie struggle to save Sir Integra, "Don't let anybody near the entrance." Parker meant for this to be seen only by himself, his escorts and Valerie.

Suddenly, Integra's body seized up.

"Damn it!" Valerie's voice was laced with panic, "I stopped the bleeding but now her heart stopped."

_The bleeding…_

Integra wasn't bleeding anymore, but a pool of her blood dripped across the ground, staining the soil red. Seras saw that precious chance for survival. With her mind she willed Integra's virgin blood towards her, directing it into her own body. Nobody had noticed what she was doing yet. All of their attention was on Integra. Even as she regenerated, Seras couldn't stop watching as Valerie pulled out a defibrillator from her med kit.

"Let her die." growled Parker.

Valerie paused, as if she wasn't sure she'd heard Parker correctly.

"I said let her die!"

Valerie seemed uncertain for a moment, but then she took a look at Integra and her face became resolute. She met Parker's intimidating gaze with one of her own. As the flesh and bone regenerated, the bullet slowly fell from Seras' skull. She was beginning to regain control of her limbs and slightly turned her head to get a look at Parker's face. A mix of surprise and anger from Valerie's sudden disobedience.

"I can't." She was a medic and her duty was to save lives. She charged the defibrillator.

"Clear!" She shouted, oblivious as Parker pointed his gun in her direction.

_No!_

There was a flash of gunfire and Seras was momentarily deafened by the sound of two gunshots. Again she slightly turned her head, expecting the worst.

For a moment it was like time stood still. Valerie just knelt frozen still trying to comprehend what had just happened. Parker lowered his smoking gun. Yet Valerie was completely uninjured. The defibrillator smoked, whined and died from the bullets that Parker had shot into it.

"Let her die." He said again.

_No…No I won't let you kill her…_

Her wounds began to heal faster. A surge of energy rushed to Seras as she rose to avenge her master and friend. Parker has just taken Integra's best chance of survival.

_She trusted you…And now you've doomed her!_

**"YOU BASTARD!"**

Seras' voice echoed across the canyon causing everyone to turn in alarm. Not just the group of them by the entrance, but all the Hellsing soldiers in the base camp. Parker's orders forgotten, dozens of soldiers rushed to the entrance in time to witness a new vampire threat. Seras no longer resembled the human soldier they had fought with, but instead one of the monstrous vampires that they all hunted. She dismissed her human visage and her left arm retook its shadowy form. As she completed her metamorphosis, the Hellsing soldiers took positions around her, dozens of them all with weapons drawn aimed at her.

They hid their fear well, but she could still sense it. They recognized her just as she recognized some of them. They had been fellow soldiers up until now; friends even, but now they were just obstacles in her way to Parker. All that mattered to her was that the Colonel had doomed Integra.

There was a long pause, dark energy swirled around Seras, her fangs barred yet nobody fired a single shot. They were completely frozen in disbelief.

"Seras?" muttered one of the soldiers. It was Mackenzie Walker, crouched on the ground with his rifle aimed at her; his expression mirrored the shock and awe that many of the soldiers were going through.

"What are you waiting for?" Parker couldn't keep the fear from his voice "Shoot her! Fire!"

They hesitated before they fired. At least Seras could give them that. Even when it was clear that their friend was a vampire; one of the same creatures responsible for the destruction of London, they still hesitated.

The silver bullets were coming at her from all directions. It would be impossible to dodge them, but Seras didn't need to. She manipulated her shadowy arm to encompass her in a protective shield. To the surprise of the soldiers, the shadow seemed to _absorb_ the bullets with ease. Then, in a flash the bubble disappeared along with Seras.

Parker barely had time to turn as Seras appeared directly behind him. He stepped backwards, his eyes wide with terror.

"How the hell are you alive? I shot you in the goddamn head!"

He was between her and the rest of the Hellsing soldiers. They couldn't possibly shoot at her without hitting him as well. He desperately fired three shots which Seras easily blocked as she came to a mere foot in front of him.

"Let's see how you like being shot in the head…"

Seras reached out into Parker's mind. It was more than just reading his thoughts, which were a mess of fear and anger. She manipulated his psyche, and by extension his actions. She looked into his eyes and through them she could control his soul. Slowly, Parker's hand acted with Seras' will and began to point the gun at him.

Parker wasn't going down easy however. His hand shook chaotically at the battle of wills. Beads of sweat worked their way down his face, a blood vessel in his eye popped, and his breathing came in short, ragged gasps. Even Seras showed signs of weakness. She had never tried to control someone else's mind before and the Colonel was far from weak-willed.

The two were locked in a stalemate, their minds bombarding each other with a flurry of emotions and desires. It felt like Seras was fighting a wall within Parkers mind. The wall was made of different feelings, sensations and memories. Everything that made Parker who he was and it was all trying to stop her. The rest of the world seemed to fade until it was just Seras and Parker.

_DieDieDieDieDieDieDieDieDieDieDieDieDieDieDieDieDi eDieDieDieDieDieDieDieDieDieDieDie!_

Were those his thoughts or hers? Their minds were so joined it was difficult to tell. Blood was starting to come out of Parker's ears from the stress of the mental battle. Images flashed in Seras' head. A happy family. A son. A loving wife. A terrible betrayal. As these memories were conjured up from Parker's mind, Seras could feel a new wave of unbridled hatred directed straight at her. She renewed her assault, pushing against his mental barriers as hard as she could.

Finally, Seras could feel something in his mind break; something precious. As his mind crumbled she forced him to point the gun at his own head. His eyes no longer looked like that of a sane man as his finger pulled down on the trigger.

_Click._

"Damn it." Seras had wanted the Colonel's death to be poetic justice. After killing Integra, the bastard didn't deserve a clean death. If the gun was out of ammo though, she'd just have to kill him with her bare hands. She gripped Parker by the neck and lifted him off the ground with ease. He didn't even resist. It's like he wasn't even aware of what was happening; his eyes stared wildly into nothingness as if he was trying to find a piece of his soul. The Hellsing soldiers could only watch as she began squeezing the life out of their leader.

"This is for Integra." She muttered as she watched the Colonel struggle for breath.

_Thump Thump._

"What?" Seras stopped. What was this?

_Thump Thump._

It was a heartbeat. She was feeling a heartbeat. That's impossible. Her heart hadn't beaten since she was alive.

_Thump Thump._

It wasn't her heart! Seras looked at Integra's body and saw the chest rising slowly up and down. Valerie held a syringe against Integra's chest. It was a shot of epinephrine used to revive Seras' master.

_Thump Thump._

Seras felt a surge of relief seeing Integra alive but then, there was something else. She was seized with panic as she began to feel her powers drain away.

_Thump Thump._

The restraints were coming back as Integra's pulse grew stronger. Seras struggled to hold onto her powers. She felt her senses dulling once again, and her eyes returning to their blue, mortal appearance.

_Thump Thump._

Too late, she realized that she'd dropped Parker; her only protection from the Hellsing soldiers. As Parker crawled away a new volley of silver bullets were heading towards her. Seras raised her shadow arm to block the bullets.

_Thump Thump._

She cried out in pain. Her arm had retaken its mortal form, and the silver bullets lodged in it burned through her flesh. There were more bullets coming. If any of them struck her heart or head, then she would die. Permanently.

_Thump Thump._

She had a split second to act and time slowed to a crawl. Ignoring the pain in her arm, Seras fought against the restraints with all of her will, trying to draw on some semblance of control. She held onto the last vestiges of her powers, trying to harness enough to teleport away.

_Thump Thump_.

She had it! She'd caught some of her fleeting power. Clinging to her last hope, she willed her form to turn into a shadow. To find some sort of escape from this place. The bullets were about to hit her when…something happened.

_Thump Thump._

She felt like she was caught in a whirlwind of darkness. Everything and everyone was tainted by a shadowy veil. Seras could feel herself fly wildly away from the soldiers. Or was it everyone else who was moving?

_Thump Thump._

She didn't know where she was but the powers she had unleashed threatened to tear her apart. With her last ounce of energy Seras forced herself back into mortal form. It was hardly a smooth transition and Seras felt as if she'd been flung out of a car as she violently crashed into something.

Where had she been taken? The soldiers were gone, she wasn't even outside were books scattered across the floor. She'd landed into a bookshelf. The shelves went on to the end of the massive room. She was in just one of many aisles.

_I'm back in the Catacombs._

She took a moment to get her bearing as the room stopped spinning. Forwards or backwards? Each path looked as promising as the other. As Seras tried to push herself from the wall she was met with excruciating pain.

The wall was slippery with blood; her blood. Seras could feel what was wrong but she hesitated, as if by not looking she could keep it from being true. But she could only deny it for so long and eventually the pain forced her to turn her head down and face reality.

She had thought the bullets had missed; that she'd escaped in time. But now she saw dozens of the silver rounds embedded in her body. Blood seeping from a hundred wounds. A sudden wave of vertigo struck and she collapsed to the ground.

It was a fatal wound. There was no way she could recover. It had taken some effort to survive a single bullet to the head when she had her restraints being released. Seras tried to draw on her power again but it was useless. The restraints were completely locked. She could only lie on the ground helpless as her blood streamed across the floor and soaked the books. Her vision became blurry and it felt like a darkness was descending on her, tempting her to surrender.

If she gave in now, then she would die. Seras fought against the darkness with all her will. She needed to fight…she needed to survive… But even as she struggled, a sliver of doubt entered her mind.

_What kind of life do I have to fight for?_

She'd shot Integra, and Parker had tried to kill her for it. She was being hunted by the very organization that she had devoted herself to. Even if Seras escaped, where would she go? She would always be on the run from her former friends. Things had been forever changed.

_Maybe if I die…Maybe I'll go somewhere better…Maybe I'll see my family…_

Ever since what happened to her parents, Seras' life had been a struggle. Maybe it was time to give in?

All it took was that moment of weakness, that crack in her armor and before Seras knew it the darkness swallowed her up.

* * *

AN: So there was the moment you've all been waiting for. Seras' nature has finally been revealed to the rest of Hellsing. Of course the full ramifications of this and the effect it has on the soldiers of Hellsing will be seen for many chapters to come. I hope you all liked this chapter, I spent a lot of time trying to get the series of events and narration right. At one point I think it was split into three separate chapters...

Once again, let me know what you think and if you have any questions are especially helpful/descriptive comments I'll try and respond. I especially love to hear what you guys think of characters and events. Who's your favorite/least favorite OC? Why do you think Parker wanted to let Integra die? What do you think is going to happen to Newt? How will Seras' team take the news that she's a vampire?

StreakingHerculobus - I haven't changed the summary, but hopefully now that this chapter has been released the summary becomes more accurate. Now Hellsing _is _hunting Seras like I said would happen in the summary. Thanks for your review!

There's still a decent number of chapters for me to publish before the story takes a break. Thank you all so much for your reviews and support so far. It makes all that time writing this well worth the effort!

And just as a reminder if anybody is concerned about all the OCs, Seras is still and will remain the focus of this story. All the OCs are meant to propel the plot forward, or put Seras in situations that develop her character and provide a supporting role (since a ton of Hellsing characters are dead or gone at the time of this story).


	17. A Simple Kindness

Chapter 17 – A Simple Kindness

Newt thought she knew what Hell was. She'd been wrong.

Trapped in that nightmarish room, she'd been left utterly abandoned and without hope. As all her resolve had been drowned out in the moans of the dead, Newt had clung to the one thing that had allowed her to survive all these years.

Her hate.

She pushed herself to survive not out of a desire for life, but out of a desire for vengeance. That had given her the strength to lift herself off the ground and run from the ghouls as they closed in around her. They had scratched and clawed at her as she had scrambled across the floor, desperately trying to find some sort of escape in the pitch blackness, but all her hands found were more stones that made up her prison.

The moans had gotten closer, that incessant groaning that made her heart sink. She'd desperately traced her hands along the ground, trying to find some sort of weapon. Instead she'd plunged her hands into a squirming pile of rotten meat. It might have once been a full ghoul, but now this barely animated body couldn't harm her. She reached out and desperately pulled on a piece of bone.

The moans had come closer. She'd been prepared to die.

Instead, the bone came loose and she found herself armed with a makeshift weapon. She'd wildly stabbed at the air. The moans of the ghouls had echoed across the room making it sound like they were everywhere. Suddenly, she felt her weapon meet flesh and a body collapsed to the ground.

She'd turned and fled again, tracing the walls to stay oriented until she violently crashed into stone. Blood had run freely down her face as struggled to stand. Her body had shaken madly from adrenaline as she huddled in the corner waiting for more ghouls to approach.

But they didn't. Instead all she heard was the tell-tale sound of bones breaking and flesh being ripped apart. It took her a moment to realize that the ghoul she had killed was being devoured her pursuers. They seemed to have forgotten her in favour of that grim feast.

But how long until they remembered their prey? Would they find her? Could they smell her? See her? Hear her?

She'd stayed paralyzed in that corner for what felt like an eternity. Time lost all meaning in the darkness. The walls of stone became her home and the broken bone that was her weapon became her greatest friend. The only smell in the room was the prevailing scent of rotten flesh. Without the aid of a vampire, the ghouls couldn't see through the darkness any better than Newt. Even after hours spent staring sightlessly into the shadows, she couldn't seem to pierce the veil. She might as well have been blind.

The moaning was the worst. It never stopped. The wails of the damned tore at Newts soul. Their cries expressed no compassion, no joy and no hope. Several times the despair was so great that Newt contemplated taking her own life just to escape the wailing. It seemed that her existence had been reduced to this torment. Her waking moments had been spent in constant fear that a ghoul would stumble upon her, bite her and condemn Newt to joining their ranks.

Until Darius.

Newt didn't believe in God. At least she didn't believe that God cared about her. But it was as if some twist of fate or omnipotent force had led to that glorious moment. She had toyed with Darius before letting him die; nurtured his hope and then robbed him of his dignity. Nothing had ever pleased Newt more than that act of retribution; when she had become the master, and Darius the weak, sniveling slave. It was the culmination of years of dreams and fantasies.

But that time had passed. Now Newt was again forced to hide as she skulked through the Catacombs. Her entire body was stiff and aching, exhaustion and starvation threatened to overwhelm her. After all her time trapped in the darkness, even the dim lights of the Catacombs felt blinding.

What was happening? Where were all the Masters and their servants? What had happened to Darius? Newt's thoughts were interrupted by a sudden bang that echoed from some distance away. Newt had never heard that sound before, but it didn't take long for her to understand what it was.

_A gunshot._

It was quickly followed by more, closer this time, along with the moans of ghouls. It intensified in strength until the gunshots became a deafening chorus of noise. Then, just as quickly, the noise stopped.

It seemed ominously quiet now. After a moment's contemplation, Newt's curiosity got the better of her caution and she found herself peeking around the corner to where the sound was.

Along the floor were piled dozens of dead ghouls. The silver bullets embedded in their bodies shined underneath blood and gore. More importantly were the people who stood alive amongst the carnage. Four men in military uniforms were silently inspecting each ghoul, making sure the creatures were truly dead.

_Hellsing._

The vampire hunters were in the Catacombs. Newt was surprised to find that this was the last thing she wanted. Although these hunters would kill the Masters; that meant that she would be robbed of her vengeance.

What would happen to her? For the first time in years, Newt remembered her life before the Catacombs. What would it be like to have a family again? To go to school? To make friends? To lead a normal life? Newt shook her head.

_I'll never lead a normal life._

The Catacombs and the Masters had changed her forever. There were things that she wouldn't forget. Things that she _shouldn't_ forget. The girl from before the Catacombs wasn't Newt. That girl was dead and Newt couldn't even remember her name.

_What if they found out that I killed that soldier?_

Newt's heart began to race. Would they understand killing him had been a mercy; that when you're with vampires there are fates worse than death? Maybe these soldiers would kill her as shamelessly as Darius would.

Despite her misgivings, Newt found herself slowly creeping out of the shadows. She had no other choice. If the Masters found her then she would be turned into a vampire and her will would be bound to theirs. Newt would rather die now than become a slave to Seriphus.

One of the soldiers saw her and in a moment he had his weapon trained on Newt. She froze, like a deer watching an oncoming car, terrified that she was about to die but too scared to move. The soldier was at a loss for words. his stoic expression changed to one of uncertainty as he realized that Newt was just a twelve year old girl. Would he think she was a vampire and shoot?

She wasn't dead yet. Newt gathered up her courage and continued to walk up to the group. She should say something, but her mind couldn't come up with words. Then another soldier, older with white hair, saw her and immediately assumed the worst.

"Ghoul!"

Newt ducked at the flash of gunfire and felt as if she were being punched in the side.

"Crosby, stop!"

It was the first soldier. Newt became dimly aware that she had somehow fallen on her back. Her ears were still ringing as she stared up at the ceiling.

_I've been shot._

Newt thought that it would hurt more, but instead it just felt numb. Shock kept her from feeling the pain in her right arm and she found herself fighting to stay conscious again. It felt as though she weren't inside her own body. The soldier was kneeling beside her now trying to keep her awake.

"Hey, it's okay. You're going to be okay."

This soldier was the first compassionate human being Newt had seen in three years. He helped her stand up and she felt herself being pulled back to reality again. Now she felt the pain and saw the blood. The bullet had gone clean through and missed the bone. Newt wouldn't be able to use that arm for a while, but she could still function.

She could still survive.

The soldier took out a bandage to stop the bleeding in her arm. She noticed that the rest of his squad were looking at her now. Their Hellsing uniforms all had the words "The Legionnaires" embroidered on. The white haired man still eyed her suspiciously.

She didn't blame him. She wasn't even angry. Covered in grime and blood, she probably looked like she was already dead. It was no surprise he had mistaken her for a ghoul. The soldier who helped her up gave her a canteen full of water. After going over a day without nourishment, the crystal water was the sweetest thing Newt could remember tasting. He wasn't bothered at all when she drained it completely in seconds. A simple kindness on his part, but it made him a saint in Newt's eyes.

"My name's Mac," he spoke in a soft, kind tone. "We'll take care of you."

"Private, our orders are to find and kill Seras." Muttered the white haired man.

_Who's Seras?_

Mac tensed. It was a miniscule change in his body language, but Newt had learned that even the smallest motion can speak volumes. He had mixed feelings about these orders…

_She's a friend of his._

"We're not going to waste time babysitting a little girl."

"You're the one who shot her!" snapped Mac, "we can't just leave her!"

The other two soldiers stopped searching the bodies for a moment to glance at the scene. By their expressions, it looked like this encounter had been a long time coming.

Mac had gone too far. Crosby's face took on a dangerous shade of red and he quickly walked up to the private who was still kneeling over Newt.

"Listen here, _private…"_ The Sergeant placed his hand on Mac's shoulder. "I'm in command! That means when I gave an order, I expe-"

It all happened so fast. Suddenly one of the bodies on the floor lunged up at the unsuspecting sergeant. The vampire plunged its teeth deep into his neck as the man screamed in pain. The other soldiers immediately turned to face the new threat and soon the air was filled with the screams of man and monster. Newt instinctively backed up from the battle, the pain in her arm forgotten. In the chaos of the fight another vampire separated himself from the group, this time heading straight for Newt. She tried to run but the vampire reached her in moments. Newt was quickly lifted off the ground by her neck until her face was inches from the vampire's.

"You are coming with us, girl."

He didn't even care about the Hellsing soldiers who were fighting his partner. Why did they want her? Newt screamed and kicked hopelessly against the creature. His eyes only widened in glee as he laughed at her feeble attempts to escape. Those laughs were suddenly cut off as a silver bullet erupted from his heart. Newt collapsed back to the ground, gasping for air; the vampire's lifeless body falling next to her.

Mac stood over the corpse, his uniform covered in blood. Newt couldn't tell whether it was his or the deceased Sergeant's. His two teammates were still locked in a battle with the other vampire, who dodged their silver bullets and clawed at their skin.

"Run!" Mac yelled out over the noise of gunfire and screams.

That was exactly what Newt did.


	18. An Unexpected Guest

Chapter 18 – An Unexpected Guest

It was the dreams that kept him from sleeping.

They weren't dreams of dark sewers or abandoned churches, but of his former home. Tristan would be there with his little sister, Amanda. Their parents had died when they were young leaving them to fend for themselves. It wasn't much of a home, army salary didn't pay for much, but as long as they had each other they were happy.

"I'll always take care of you" he would say to her, "I promise."

Only he hadn't. Tristan was half way across the world when the Nazi's had attacked. He was one of the few in Hellsing that knew the truth before he was recruited. He'd given his sister a military grade satellite phone so that they could always stay in touch no matter where they were. It was a major breach of regulations, but Tristan hadn't cared.

He'd listened in horror as she described the streets red with blood. He tried to keep her calm as vampires killed any living being they'd found. For hours they just spoke. He was her only tether to reality, her only light in that hell that had once been London. He grimaced as he recalled her final moments.

_It would have been alright. She would have survived in that apartment, if it hadn't been for-_

A whirring noise in the distance drew Tristan's attention. A helicopter. He slowly managed to climb out of his bed, still wincing from his wounds. He could walk now; even though he had a slight limp which the doctors assured him would heal. As Tristan looked out his window he noticed two things.

First, there was a distinct lack of Hellsing soldiers on base. There had been over a hundred soldiers when Tristan had gone to sleep. Now, as the sun was coming up, Tristan saw that there were barely over thirty. It wasn't unusual for there to be many soldiers away on missions, but Tristan had never seen this few on base.

Second, the chopper that was now landing at the base's helipad did _not_ belong to Hellsing. It was jet black, with no discerning emblems or identifications to hint at who could be on it. It seemed like Tristan wasn't the only one who was confused. A couple of soldiers were aiming their rifles uncertainly at the helicopter. They seemed lost, as if waiting for orders that weren't coming.

_Where's Parker?_

Not much had changed by the time Tristan had limped to the courtyard. A group of three soldiers saluted as he approached.

"What's going on, private?" Tristan had a bad feeling about this.

"I don't know, sir. Nobody does."

"So we just let some random stranger land a helicopter inside our base?" Tristan tried to hide the frustration from his voice.

"Well, sir…It's just that…we're drastically undermanned right now. Colonel Parker took most of the soldiers away on a mission last night. We didn't even know the helicopter was coming until it was too late to stop it."

_So someone decides to pay us a visit the one day that we can't stop them from coming. This can't be a coincidence._

Tristan spared a nervous glance towards helipad. It had metal doors on the side and the glass was mirrored. There was no telling who was inside.

"Alright, they're not going to just sit inside that chopper all day. Who's the highest ranking soldier here?"

"Um, that would be you, sir."

Tristan tried to hide his surprise. If he was the highest ranked then that meant that Parker had taken all of the senior officers with him. Since when did the Colonel go out into the field anyway? What had been so urgent that he leave the base in such a dire state?

"Alright, you three come with me" Tristan made his way to the helicopter which rested idly. He got a much better view of it now that the sun was out. It had no weapons, but its armor and design clearly indicated its passengers were meant to travel quickly and in safety.

"Lower your weapons." Tristan spoke into his radio. The helicopter couldn't fit more than half a dozen passengers. "Stay on your guard though." He added as an afterthought.

There was a screech of metal as the hatch slid open. It was at this point that Tristan realized he was entirely unarmed. That didn't worry him. Let whoever comes out think that Tristan was confident enough in his escorts that he didn't need a weapon.

Tristan had his suspicions on who it could be. His heart started to race at the possibility. Could it be them? There was only one organization audacious enough to arrive here unannounced.

He struggled to maintain his composure as he recognized the woman stepping out of the helicopter.

_I should have grabbed a weapon when I had the chance…_

At first glance she seemed harmless, but appearances could be deceiving. The woman had straw-colored hair and wore the simple garb of a priest. She was unarmed, but that didn't stop the soldiers who recognized her from shifting nervously. It was the mouth that put Tristan off. The parts that weren't covered in bandages revealed a grievous wound. The skin had been torn exposing barred teeth as if she were ready to fight.

_Damnit. What the hell is she doing here?_

The woman casually walked up to Tristan, who appeared to be in charge.

"My name is Heinkel Wolfe, of the Vatican section thirteen." Despite being surrounded by armed soldiers her grey-green eyes conveyed no fear or concern.

A single woman, yet her presence changed everything. It proved that an organization Tristan had thought, no, he had hoped was gone was still active.

The Iscariot Organization had come to Hellsing.


	19. Hunted

Chapter 17 - Hunted

She was being hunted.

Newt held her breath, not daring to make a sound. She willed her body to stop shaking as she hid underneath the table.

Just as she expected, the vampire silently entered the library. There was no sign of The Legionnaires.

_They're probably all dead._

Not many people can survive close combat with a vampire. Still, Newt held up hope that at least Mac could have escaped.

Newt wasn't hoping for a rescue. Even if Mac had escaped, he wouldn't even know where she was and there was no guarantee he would help her even if he did. As always, Newt could only rely on herself.

"I know you're in here." The vampire suddenly smashed a table across the room into splinters. Newt could have easily been hiding there. "Show yourself, girl!" Another table smashed. He was getting closer.

Newt desperately looked around the room. The library was large and full of hiding spots, but as soon as she left the table she would be seen. The throbbing pain in her arm was making it tough to think. It wouldn't be long before the blood soaked through the bandage.

_That's it._

It would require perfect timing, and the distraction wouldn't last long. As the vampire began smashing another table, Newt quickly unraveled the blood-soaked bandage and tossed it behind a bookshelf. The vampire paused and began sniffing the air like a dog.

Her arm was bleeding profusely. Newt clenched her hand tightly over the wound to stem the flow. The pain was unbearable, but she didn't dare make a sound.

"I smell you, human."

But did he smell the blood on her arm, or on the bandage?

He walked over to the table she hid under. The vampire was close enough that she could grab his feet. All he had to do was smash this table like he had so many others and it would be over. She could only there frozen, the pain in her arm threatening to overwhelm her.

Then suddenly he attacked. Not her, but the bookshelf where the bandage was hidden. He smashed the shelf to cases and mindlessly tore away at the ancient tomes. Torn books and splinters of wood flew wildly across the room. Newt was mesmerized by the monsters frenzied attacks. She couldn't help but feel a sense of admiration of it. A being of such power and bloodlust able to kill and maim with ease.

_Which is what he'll do if he finds me!_

Newt regained her senses and, seeing her opportunity, sprinted across the room into one of the many aisles of the library. Her arm was bleeding profusely, leaving a bloody trail where she ran, the room was starting to spin and she was losing her footing.

A sudden howl of anger rang from behind her. The vampire had discovered her deception. Newt dared a glance behind her and saw that at least the vampire hadn't found her yet. The glance came at a cost as something caught her feet and she collapsed to the ground.

Newt reached out to stop the fall only for her injured arm to falter under her weight. She winced as more pain ran through her. Everything was hurting now.

What had tripped her? Newt realized that it was a body lying in a pool of blood. She knew that she should run, the vampire could come at any second, but something made Newt crawl to the body and turn it over.

It was a young woman, with blonde hair and a dozen bloody bites on her body. Her blue eyes stared sightlessly in death and her mouth was open as if in a sigh. It was tough to tell, but it looked like her bloody, torn uniform belonged to Hellsing.

_The soldiers haven't gotten this far yet. How did she get here?_

There was no time to think about this. Any second the vampire would smell the blood and find Newt. She began searching the body for something, anything that she could use to defend herself and that's when she noticed the woman's name tag. Seras Victoria.

Hellsing had been hunting one of its own? Newt dug her trembling hand into one of the wounds and realized that they weren't bites at all, they were bullet holes. The silver bullet she withdrew shone in stark contrast to the blood that covered both her and the body. Newt inspected the woman's teeth and realized why she had been killed.

_You're a vampire…_

A thousand questions raced through Newt. How long had this Seras been a vampire? Why would she join Hellsing? How did she get here? Another howl echoed through the chamber. Newt was running out of time. Now there was only one vital question that mattered.

_Can I use you to survive?_

Newt remembered a phrase from one of the books in this very library. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Seras Victoria might not consciously help Newt, but she could at least provide a distraction that would allow Newt to escape. Without any more hesitation she let the blood from her wound flow freely into the Seras' mouth. Seras' body was still warm so maybe Newt's virgin blood could revive her.

Every second seemed to drag on. Newt could hear bookshelves topple and wood break as the vampire tore apart the library in his search. There was still no sign of change. How much blood did the Hellsing vampire need?

Finally there was a sign of life, just a trace. The woman's eyelids tightened by the smallest margin, as if in recognition of a discomfort or pain. Now the blood wasn't just freely flowing into the woman's mouth, it felt as though it was being _pulled _by some unseen force.

_This is all happening too slow._

Newt didn't have the time to fully heal this woman. It had been a mistake to stay. Her muscles painfully protested as she forced her body to stand. Blood loss blurred her vision and made the room spin. It had been foolish to weaken herself like that, and she could pay for that mistake with her life.

_Stay awake. Stay awake…_

It was so tempting now to just collapse. To rest like the blonde woman Newt was leaving behind. To just give in…

_Go to sleep. Go to sleep…_

Newt recognized the voice in her mind. Seriphus' hypnotic whispers, whether a figment of her imagination, a hallucination caused by her weary mind, or something else entirely, were growing evermore enticing.

_Rest. Relax. Just for a moment._

But then she remembered the room with the ghouls, how tempting it had been to give up then. Newt had survived that living nightmare and she would survive this.

_To give in is weakness. And I am not weak!_

The very values the Masters had taught her now helped to motivate her escape. She picked up her pace down the aisle. The exit was just around this bend.

Newt was so disoriented as she rounded the corner that she ran face first into a figure. Collapsing to the ground again, Newt knew it couldn't be the vampire who was still tearing through parts of the library. Through her blurry vision she could make out the uniform of a Hellsing soldier. She must have been wrong. The soldiers must have gotten further than she thought. Her hope grew as she recognized the soldier as the first compassionate human she'd met in a lifetime.

That very hope was shattered when she saw his face.

_No. Not you too._

Before Newt could react, the figure grabbed her body and lifted her up with ease. She screamed and struggled hopelessly, beating her hands against the figures chest and trying to wrench herself from his grasp. It was pointless. Newt had lost. It wasn't long before the vampire rounded the corner, a mocking grin on his face.

"And to think you would have gotten away if not for your friend." He gloated.

Beaten, Newt could only stare back in hate as the walking corpse of Mackenzie Walker handed her over to the vampire who'd bitten off half his face.

* * *

AN: Uploaded early since Sei-mobius asked so nicely. This chapter is called Hunted because I felt that the title suited this chapter better. So I changed Chapter 2 to be called Labyrinth. I'm glad you like the OC's Madoka, and you're absolutely right, since I'm writing after the London incident, many Hellsing characters were already dead.

That being said, I did manage to bring Heinkel Wolfe back in, so we'll see how that unfolds.

To Lunar13, this chapter should explain where in the Catacombs Seras ended up, also (and I'm pretty sure I said this somewhere else as well) since I'm trying to fit my story into Hellsing continuity, Alucard will not be making an appearance. But, as some of you may have noticed, Seras does not have the bite on her neck showing yet, nor does she believe Alucard is coming back yet, so I will work that into my story, but it won't be for a while (after the break) and it will still keep Alucard's presence to a minimum.

Alucard may not show up in person, but you can still see he has influence over the story. Seras will frequently think about her old master as she struggles with her own nature in the future. Also, if you look at the vampire whose legend inspires Seriphus (Chapter 15) you may recognize some of those titles he used.

I won't have Alucard show up, but I'm not just going to pretend he doesn't/didn't exist (like I've tried to for Pip...)


	20. War

Chapter 20 - War

_This is war._

Or at least, it felt like that for Corporal Valerie Clarke. This wasn't one of the small, surgical operations that Hellsing was used to. It was a full scale underground battle. The command tent had at least a dozen officers relaying orders and organizing soldiers as they worked their way through the vampire lair. The radios were filled with endless chatter of combat reports, reinforcement requests and other tactical data.

"Sir, we've lost contact with squad 4!" called one of the officers listening in on the radio, "They were in the lower east quadrant."

_The Legionnaires. Mac's squad._

Valerie took a glance at the center of the tent. A large table had been completely covered with paper and two men were constantly trying to map out the lair as the squads progressed. Mac's squad had been taking point. It was a dangerous job and meant that they were far away from any kind of support.

"Get Corporal Hayes and Squad 8 over there now, they're the closest." Responded Colonel Parker. He was hunched over the table, gazing at the improvised map. While many of the tactical officers were in a panic, Parker's voice sounded controlled and serious, his eyes locked on the makeshift map below him. As much as he tried to hide it, Valerie could tell he was using the table to support his weight. After his encounter with Seras, the Colonel could barely stand.

Parker's controlled behavior was deceptive. Valerie could see the storms behind his eyes, and knew better than to challenge the Colonel now. One of the officers was not so perceptive.

"Sir, they could be walking into an am-"

"I don't care what they could be walking into, lieutenant!" he shouted.

The tent suddenly became very quiet, with all eyes on the Colonel. He had his teeth barred, either from anger or pain. He took a deep breath and spoke softly.

"They're trained to handle situations like this. All that matters is that we find and kill Seras Victoria."

Slowly the tent returned to its buzz of activity. Valerie couldn't help but think of her former friend.

_It all comes back to Seras. How could I have been so blind?_

Valerie had spent _months_ with Seras and never once suspected that she could be hiding something as drastic as this. It didn't even make sense; she had fought alongside Hellsing all this time. After everyone Valerie was close to had died in the Nazi Attack, the Wild Geese had become closer than family. Seras had been like a sister to her, someone that Valerie could depend on.

_Had it all been a lie? _

Maybe she'd been a spy for these vampires all along, waiting until the right time to strike. She'd almost killed Sir Integra and Colonel Parker and then gone on to survive an attack from a dozen Hellsing soldiers. Valerie had learned a lot about vampires, and it was clear that Seras wasn't just any ordinary monster.

_She betrayed us all._

Suddenly, another soldier burst into the tent. Valerie was reminded briefly of Mac's disruptive entrances, then remembered that the private was fighting underground. This soldier, a woman, had bloodstains up to her elbows.

"Corporal Clarke, another group of wounded have just arrived." The woman managed to gasp out, "we need help stabilizing some of them."

With that the women left, likely returning to the on-site infirmary.

Valerie was eager for the opportunity to leave the command tent. It was time she started doing her part to help Hellsing. As she was a step away from leaving the tent, a hang gripped her arm suddenly. Valerie turned to see Parker, his face wet with sweat looking her in the eye. She didn't even know how he had crossed the tent so quickly.

"How's Sir Integra?"

Valerie hesitated. She'd saved Sir Integra's life directly against orders, but Parker was acting as if those orders had never been given.

"She's…she's stabilized…she's going to live but she's still unconscious."

"Good" he muttered. Valerie wasn't sure if he was happy that she was alive or happy she's unconscious. Maybe both?

There was a pause. Valerie waited, expecting the Colonel to continue his inquiry but he remained silent. He paused, as if in thought before looking back to her. Again, Valerie could see the storms behind his eyes.

"Listen to me carefully, Clarke" His voice was almost a whisper but still conveyed his authority clearly. "The moment Integra wakes up, moves strangely; hell, if there's any change at all, you let me know immediately. Understood?"

Parker's eyes were bloodshot and it seemed like there was a slight craze to them. After Seras' attack Valerie had found no serious damage to the Colonel. Maybe that evaluation had been premature…

"Understood." She replied, trying to hide her fright. She hated being afraid, but the events of the past hours had shaken Valerie to the core.

"Good." And like that the Colonel let her go and returned to the map. Valerie didn't wait any longer. She quickly left the tent, almost sprinting to the infirmary.

_This is just too much._

Parker, Integra and Seras. Valerie felt like she'd been caught in some elaborate plot based around those three. So much was happening that she didn't understand. She wasn't even sure how to feel. Betrayed, angry, confused, sad…

It was almost a relief when Valerie finally arrived at the improvised medical facility. Here she could forget about all the intrigue and focus on what she was good at: saving lives. Banishing her troubled thoughts and emotions, Valerie got to work.

It went on for hours. For every injury she patched up, there seemed to be another two waiting. Valerie worked far into the evening, never getting a moment to stop. She didn't want to stop. To stop would make her think about what was happening. That Mac or Brock could be dead right now. That Seras could have killed them.

Valerie grimaced as she worked on the latest casualty. The soldier had a massive gash on his leg. He was unconscious, and when he woke up Valerie would have to tell him he wouldn't walk for months. She was so engrossed in her work that she never noticed the figure walk up to her.

"I can take over for you ma'am." Said the medic. She was the same soldier who'd summoned Valerie over to the infirmary. At first Valerie declined, choosing not to mention that she preferred to work rather than think.

"You've done more work than the rest of us combined. You haven't stopped once. Please ma'am, I insist."

The soldier had a point, and Valerie was getting so tired that she could end up making a mistake and hurting someone. Being a soldier meant knowing your own limits. She grudgingly moved aside and let the woman take over.

_I'm not just going to sit out though._

There was one patient that she still needed to check on. Valerie worked her to the corner of the massive tent that had been cordoned off. Sir Integra's limp form rested on the cot. Valerie took a seat next to the leader of Hellsing and checked her vitals. Still no change. Most people couldn't have survived Integra's injury. It seemed like the leader of Hellsing had survived on will alone. Still, there was no telling when she would wake up.

Valerie found herself slowly giving in to the exhaustion. She hadn't slept in…how long had it been? Time had become a blur since the operation started.

_If I fall asleep then I'll dream. _

And given the past few hours, Valerie had a good idea of what her dreams would be. It would be about things she was trying to ignore. Truths she was trying to avoid. Her eyes slowly closed, her body relaxed.

And she dreamt.


	21. Dreams

Chapter 21 - Dreams

They say right before you die your entire life flashes before your eyes, but the life that was flashing before Seras wasn't her own.

At first it was just a blur of images moving by too fast to comprehend. Every image came with a feeling, happiness, hope, regret, anger.

_Hate._

So many of these images came with hate; Hate for fate, for God, some hidden tormentor, the entire world and everyone in it. It all threatened to overwhelm Seras. She couldn't hide from the whirlwind of emotions. It dominated her mind, refusing to be shut out.

Then, in an instant, it stopped.

Seras was now in a beautiful home with the bright morning light shining in through the windows. Everything seemed so large, or was it Seras who was small? She felt like she was in the body of a young child.

"Happy birthday, sweetie" Seras looked up to see a black-hair woman holding strawberry cake with nine bright candles. It was Seras' favorite-no, it was this girl's favorite. This was a memory of some sort but not Seras'. It all felt so real though. The warm summer air, the floor underneath her bare feet, the smell of the strawberry cake making her mouth water. Seras was having trouble separating this vivid dream from reality.

Seras knew this woman wasn't actually her mother, but she felt the love and admiration that any nine year old girl would have for a parent. For a moment Seras felt a longing for her own long dead parents.

"Hey, kiddo" A pair of strong hand picked her up from behind. An involuntary giggle escaped her as the ground fell beneath her.

"Daddy!" Seras couldn't help the sudden outburst. She was beginning to feel herself drawn further into the illusion that these were her parents. The emotions felt so real. In his strong embrace she felt safe.

"Nine years old" His face was beaming with pride. "You're growing up so fast"

"And so pretty too" added her…the girl's mother once Seras was set down.

Seras ran over to the mirror in their living room. She really was growing. She'd grown another few inches and her black hair was already at her shoulders. She hopped up and down in excitement. Soon she'd be big and strong just like her parents.

She could see their reflection in the mirror with her own. Mother, father and daughter; the perfect family, and she had the perfect life.

_Why am I seeing this?_

The feeling of belonging and happiness tempted Seras to lose herself in the dream. But this wasn't her. This was somebody else's life. The kind of life that Seras would never have again. That knowledge didn't stop her from desperately clinging to the feeling of safety and belonging as she was pulled back to reality.

She opened her eyes. The house, family and warm summer air was gone. The air had become cold and musty, the walls flickering with shadows from weak flames. Now she was back in the Catacombs, as Seras Victoria the vampire; the vampire whose family was dead and whose friends were hunting her. As much as it pained her, that was who she was. Seras fought to dismiss the dreams of a family that wasn't hers. She needed to stay focused.

She was getting feeling back, along with a surge of pain throughout her body.

_That's good. Pain is good. It means you're alive._

It didn't make sense. She shouldn't be alive after that battle. She lay on the ground unmoving, in a pool of her own blood in an underground library. Seras spent several minutes watching in fascination as her body regenerated. The silence of the library was punctuated only by the sound of the bullets in her body being forced out and falling to the stone floor. Soon, even the pain had completely disappeared.

It was the first time since entering the Catacombs that Seras could move without exhaustion or pain. She couldn't help a small smile at her renewed strength. Her uniform was still soaked in blood, but a quick inspection of the skin beneath showed no signs of injuries. It was as if the battle had never happened.

Seras could only remember one other time when she'd regenerated like this.

_But how could I have drunk blood?_

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of gunfire in the distance. Hellsing was still hunting her, and it sounded like there were still vampires prowling the underground as well.

_Unarmed and alone in an underground maze full of people who want to kill me. Could be worse…_

She tested her hands and made a fist.

_I could be human._

Seras had no idea how to get out of the Catacombs. Any random direction could just take her deeper underground or worse, back to Hellsing soldiers. The only people who could help her find another exit were the vampires who lived here, the ones who called themselves The Masters.

_Strange. How did I know that?_

More gunshots rattled in the distance, now mingled with the inhuman battle cry of a vampire. Seras started walking towards the noise. There was one place she knew she could find one of the Masters.

* * *

AN:Thanks to all of your positive reviews, I really appreciate each and every one of them! It's because of your reviews that I continue to work on this story.

Also thanks to the guest who pointed out the typos in the last chapter, I'll fix those soon.

For the guest who was wondering about the original Wild Geese. I assumed since there were just two of them left they would have left Hellsing. As of now they're probably off freelancing or enjoying retirement of some sort. I thought about bringing them back into the story but I couldn't think of a way to work them in. That could change later but for the immediate future they won't be making any appearances.

Killing Mac seemed appropriate at this stage of the story. The few times we saw him he was sort of the comic relief character in the group but he also represented some core morals that Hellsing stands by. To see him die in such an ignoble way sort of hits home that things are changing for Seras and Hellsing, and that sort of core morals of Hellsing may have been compromised...That was at least my logic behind it. Let me know what you guys think.

Also I've heard mixed things about Chapter 18, so let me know what you guys think. Are you intrigued by the storyline? Do you think it's not going to go anywhere? I'm using that chapter to give Tristan some face-time and set the scene for after the events of the Catacombs have been resolved.


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